Once is Enough
by Sanae
Summary: It looked like finally Heero and Relena were going to be together but...
1. Chapter One

Disclaimer:_ I do not own Gundam Wing, never will, sadly. So don't sue._

_Reviews: If you wish to do so, please leave a review, if not I hope at least you enjoyed reading this..._

_Flames: Love them, collect them, have of all colours, keep them in bathroom next to toilet paper…_

**Once is Enough **

Chapter One

Relena Darlian-Peacecraft was in her office, overloaded as usual with letters and treaties waiting to be signed, when the warm voice of Judy, her middle-aged secretary, sounded through the speaker of her videocom:

"Miss Relena, your lunch appointment is here."

"Ok, Judy, I will be there in a minute," Relena replied with her polite voice.

Releasing the button of the videocom, the young politician got up from her desk and, grabbing her jacket, left her office to meet Lucrezia Noin. For the first time in ages Relena had conceded herself a lunch of leisure since the occasion more than called for it: her older brother Milliardo had finally done the decent thing and had asked his long term girlfriend Lucrezia to marry him. A very happy Lucrezya had then decided to get Relena involved as much as possible in the planning process of the wedding. What Lucrezia didn't know is that she was about to have the biggest surprise of her life.

"Hi, Relena, you look really tired, you ought to get some rest!" Lucrezia said, as usual, going straight to the point.

"That is what I always tell her Miss Noin," intervened Judy.

"Oh, you two!" Relena exclaimed, beginning to feel a bit tired, "stop treating me like I was a little girl. I am eighteen years old now and according to our laws I am not underage anymore! Now, Lu, do you want to lunch or you prefer me going back to my office and arrange another of my incredibly boring appointments?"

"No," Lucrezia hurried to say, "sorry Relena, is just that you do look a bit worn out that's all…"

At long last, they left the Foreign Minister's office and directed themselves to one of the best restaurants in the city centre. Relena seriously considered leaving the 'surprise' she had for her future sister-in-law for after dessert but, as she had learnt through her diplomatic experience, nasty news are better said first so, as soon as they were left alone to examine their menus, she decided to drop the bomb:

"Lu," she started carefully, "do you know the reason why I look so tired?"

"Of course, you are working too much," Lu replied without even lifting her eyes from her menu.

"You're wrong there, the fact is that I have not slept properly in the last two weeks"

"What's bothering you darling?" asked Lucrezia now looking at the younger woman.

"Nothing. Is just that I'm pregnant," Relena half whispered, lowering her head almost hiding it behind the menu, while she braced herself for the worse.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

"What??" Shouted Lucrezia making quite a few of the customers turn around and stare at them.

"Please Lu, don't shout…I really don't want everyone to find out just yet…" Relena whispered from behind the menu.

"I'm sorry but…wow…that was a big one…I mean…wow…I just don't know what to say…"

"Well…I know that in these cases it's appropriate saying something like, congratulations…" supplied Relena.

"Geez, I know that…is just that…" started Lucrezia

"I know, I'm only eighteen and not married…"

"Relena, don't take it the wrong way, but…who's the father…I mean, is it…?"

"Yes, it's Heero, predictable, huh?" Relena replied with a very small voice.

"How…I mean, I know how…but when…" asked Lucrezia

"Well…you know…do you remember that night almost two months ago… when there was that terrorist attack near the palace?"

"Yes…"

"Heero was there and he, once again, saved my life…well, that night I was really scared and I asked Heero to spend the night with me…I actually expected him to be sitting somewhere in the room and watch over me during my sleep…I never expected what happened afterwards…"

"I understand…but, does he know?"

"No…I don't think he wants to know either…"

"Why not? He's the father after all…he's got the right to know…"

"Well, after that night, I don't know what happened…I guess he had second thoughts…I'm not sure, maybe it's something I did, all I know is that the morning after he acted as if it had all been a mistake and tried to ignore it…I don't really know what happened, all it matters to me now is that he has given me the best night of my life and now he will give me this baby…deep down I have always wished to give Heero a child…sure I would have liked it to happen differently but, the same way that you don't get to choose who you fall in love with, I guess is the same with these things…" Relena finished looking quite sad.

"I'm so sorry to hear this, but have you actually tried to speak to Heero about the whole thing?"

"No…after that day I have not seen him again…I guess he's embarrassed or something…"

It looked like Lucrezia was going to add something when they got interrupted by the waiter that came to take the orders. After that Relena tried to make the conversation a bit lighter and dropping the subject, started talking about the wedding organisation... Lucrezia did not get the chance to speak about it until both women went back to Relena's office. In the elevator, Relena, very serious, said:

"I beg you not to say anything to anyone, especially to my brother…please Lu, I'm dead serious…I will tell everyone when I will be ready…"

"Ok…I won't say anything…"

"Promise it to me…"

"I promise…"

"Ok…Thanks Lu, it's been good to be able to talk to someone…"

"I'm here for whatever you need…"

"Sure. Thanks…"

With this Relena went back to her office and Lucrezia went back to the preventer's offices.


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

After many attempts, Heero stopped trying to concentrate on those files that he was supposed to examine. Since, THAT night, he had been unable to stay focused on something too long. His mind kept drifting away to THAT night.

He remembered the explosion, a huge boom that shook the entire palace. He had managed to get Relena back safely. It had been a matter of minutes and he had managed to get her out of the car and inside the building before that bomb exploded causing a huge hole in the garden.

All Relena wanted to know was whether there were any wounded and if there was anyone taking care of the house staff…She kept asking after Paygan till she saw him and hugged him.

Paygan asked Heero to take Relena to the kitchen where Paygan would make some hot cocoa that would help her relax. It was funny to see that guy that was almost seventy years old treating Relena with the same care than one treats a baby…

Paygan left them alone to take care of the organisation of the staff when Relena asked the question Heero had longed to hear.

"Please Heero, don't leave me alone this time…stay with me for the night…I'm so scared now…"

"I will…now drink your cocoa…I'll do you good…"

They went to the girl's room and Relena went to her walk in wardrobe and got in her nightie. Heero went almost crazy when he saw her through the lights. All her forms where visible through the silk of her nightie. Heero had been observing her during the last few months and had realised how much had she grown…She was now a fully grown woman…and a very attractive one…For Heero that was too much…ever since that chaste kiss they had shared two years ago, he had been waiting for her to grow up so they could share something else…tonight he just could not wait any more.

He walked towards her and simply hugged her. He could feel her surprise. Then she returned the hug and Heero started caressing her hair. He moved very slowly in case he got something wrong, scared her and ruined everything. Then, after what seemed an eternity, pulled her away very slightly and kissed her. First on her forehead, then each of her shut eyes, then her neck and finally he kissed her fully on her mouth. He had no idea how she was going to react but, not seeing any sign of rejection kept kissing her till she started kissing him back. Their kiss became deeper and Heero's hands started to venture starting from her shoulders towards the rest of her body.

Not a single word was said. Everything was so natural for the two of them, it was like a dance that they both knew perfectly well and they did not need any instructions from the other. The clothes flew away and they found themselves on her bed.

Finally they got together in the most intimate way and they fell asleep in each other's arms. Then she said something in her sleep that shocked him…Those three little words that made everything either very right or very wrong:

"I love you."

He felt extremely cheap. The thing was that he didn't really know whether he loved her or not. He stayed all night awake till the morning came and he had made up his mind to treat everything like it had never happened. That was probably a very coward decision but Heero didn't know what else to do…

In any case, ever since that night, Heero kept avoiding any contact with Relena. He also tried to bury himself with work but found out that he could not concentrate on it as easily as he thought.

His plan would have worked very well had it not been for the videocall he was going to get that same night.


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Lady Une was reading once more Milliardo Peacecraft's report. She just couldn't believe it. This had to be stopped immediately. She called Sally Po to her office to discuss the matter and to decide what was best to solve this situation in the shortest time.

Sally got to her superior's office in no time. The Chinese woman sat down and Lady Une handed her the dossier. After giving it a look Sally said:

"No way! What on earth was Dr J thinking??"

"I don't know… but we need to stop his project before it gets out of hand…if the Assembly finds out there will be immediate trouble…and this will affect Relena directly…don't forget that the Terraforming project in Mars is her idea…"

"I think we should call a meeting with her…we may also call Milliardo and Lucrezia…they are both currently living in Mars so they will advise us in how to proceed…"

"Yes…I've already called them, they should arrive tomorrow morning…I have also called Heero Yuy. He was trained by Dr J and he will be the best to know how to tackle him…"

"Yes, I agree…Should we call the rest of the guys?"

"Not all of them…maybe you should get in touch with your partner Wufei Chang, I will need you two to cover up the operation. May we need further assistance we will contact Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton and Quatre Raberba Winner…but for now it's enough with us…we don't want too much publicity"

The morning after, in an office, six people were discussing the problem. Relena had come with Milliardo and Lucrezia, Lady Une, Sally and Wufei where also there. The only one missing from the meeting was Heero…he didn't turn up till half an hour later.

Finally the room's door opened and Heero came into the room.

"I'm sorry, I missed the shuttle you booked for me and I had to wait till the next one available…"

"That's ok. Now, we have already started but if you please will read this dossier you will understand why you're here…of course, you will see for yourself why I couldn't tell you anything via the videocom"

Heero sat down and tried to read the document he was given. Unfortunately, all he could really think of was the blond, young woman that sat in front of him. What on earth was Relena doing there? Thankfully he didn't need to read the entire document because Lady Une, trying to save time said:

"Oh, we don't have time for this, I will explain myself to everyone what has happened. Dr J has been using our resources, the ones that Relena has managed to allocate to the Terraforming project, to finance one of his projects. At the beginning it seems that no one was too bothered by it because it involved a whole new concept of gravitational force to implement in the new Mars colonies. Unfortunately, someone has decided to use this force for something completely different…Dr J has been too careless regarding security and now his plans are in the wrong hands. We have had news about some terrorist group that wants to enhance the gravitational device so the space colonies would actually be attracted by Mars and might crash into it…That is, of course unless we do something about it…"


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

The group spent the entire morning discussing the plan designed by Lady Une and Sally. It was decided that Heero would go with Milliardo and Lucrezia to see Dr J to try to find out as much as possible about the device and after that Heero would try to get inside the terrorist group and blow their plan. Meanwhile Wufei and Sally would stay on the preventers HQ and try to keep a close watch on the situation from there. Relena's role was to try to find out if there was anyone unhappy with the Terraforming project among the Assembly members that could actually have the resources to finance such action against it.

After the meeting Lady Une, Sally and Wufei went back to the preventers HQ. Milliardo and Lucrezia, with Heero, were heading to Mars. They accompanied Relena to her private shuttle where her secretary and bodyguards were waiting for her. Lucrezia, pretending to have something to show to Milliardo before they took off, left the two alone with the hope they would actually speak to each other.

Heero kept looking away from her. The reality is that he was terrified. For the first time in his life he didn't know how to deal with fear. He looked at Relena briefly and saw her discussing her agenda with her secretary.

Suddenly she turned around and looked at him. Excusing herself with her secretary, she started walking towards him.

"Hello Heero…it's been a while…how are you?"

"Hn…I'm ok"

Relena, who was used to Heero's lack of conversational skills, said:

"I'm happy to hear that…Heero, now we have to concentrate on this mission but, I would like to have a word with you as soon as this is over…"

"Hn…"

"Well, now I better go…have lots to do today…do take care, will you?"

"Hn…"

"See you…"

With this she turned around and boarded her shuttle. He saw one of the bodyguards shutting the door and the shuttle taxied towards the take off ramp.

'Now, can I be more of a bastard?' thought Heero seeing her go. He had just blown it once again…Why was it that this girl could make him feel like he was the most stupid person on earth? She made him feel, weak…confused…She made everything so confusing…He felt frustrated and completely useless… 'Get a grip, will you?' Heero told himself…

"What?" Lucrezia asked him.

"What, what?" Asked Heero confused.

"You said, 'Get a grip, will you?', what did you mean?"

"Ah… nothing…thinking aloud that's all…" replied Heero telling himself off. He was definitely nuts. Now he had even started to speak to himself.

"Did Relena say anything?" Lucrezia asked incredibly curious.

"No. Did she had to?"

"Not specifically…Just thought…oh, forget it…"


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"Miss Relena…please prepare yourself for landing…" said her secretary interrupting the girl's thoughts.

She had spent the entire trip thinking about her 'conversation' with Heero. It was pretty much clear that Heero did not want to have anything to do with her. He was not even curious about what she wanted to tell him.

'I should not be so upset…after all I knew that there was this risk…' Relena thought while packing up the documents she had used to pretend she was busy reading them.

The problem was that she was upset. She had made the mistake of thinking that there was hope, that maybe if Heero saw her he would speak to her and would tell her that he loved her too…but, of course, that was daydreaming and she knew that there was a very slim chance that this could actually happen. In any case, now her problems were others. She had a baby on the way and she had to think about the consequences this fact would bring. How would she justify it all to the press, to her fellow politicians and to the people around her...

Thankfully, she was still in the first few weeks of the pregnancy and, physically, nothing had actually changed. She only felt slightly dizzy first thing in the morning but she had learned that having a cracker and a coffee fixed everything up.

Deep down she was quite excited about the whole thing. In fact, she was already wondering whether it was a boy or a girl, how the baby would look like, secretly hoping it would look like Heero.

Getting up from her seat, instinctively, put her hand on her tummy. She smiled. Applying her optimistic nature to the situation she thought that, at least, from now on, she would never be alone anymore. Besides, she had a handful of friends that would be more than happy to help her. For example, Lucrezia and Milliardo, even if they now lived in Mars, Relena was sure that they would give her a hand.

But all of this thoughts were a bit premature, Relena told herself, at the end of the day, she hadn't even spoken to Heero and, although his attitude was not the best, maybe there was still hope. What Relena feared the most was that Heero would stay with her only for the baby. This actually terrified her.

No. She didn't want to think of this. She had to stay positive.

"Miss Relena…", suddenly a voice said interrupting her flow of thoughts.

"What?" Relena replied rather rudely, regretting it instantly realising that the voice's owner was no one other than her secretary, Judy, that was looking at her very concerned.

"I'm sorry, I was asking you if you were ok. You've been unusually quiet and, if I'm allowed to be frank, you seemed lost in your thoughts…" said Judy.

"Please forgive me…I'm just thinking about the terraforming project…It's a bit more complicated than I expected…" Relena said lying through her teeth and feeling awful about it.

"Ah…I see…" Judy replied and, to Relena, she didn't sound too convinced.

"Well, let's go home…" added Relena quickly trying to change the topic.

"Yes, of course…" Judy said following Relena inside the car that was going to take them home.

Quick Author Note: Thanks everybody that has reviewed. Please note that for me each review is a bonus. I really don't expect any when I write since I mainly write for myself. I'm only too happy that we have the opportunity to show our work to other people that may be kind enough to drop a line or two to comment it. Thanks again for being such great people!


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

"Honey, wake up, we're almost there…" Milliardo said tapping softly on Lucrezia's shoulder who was taking a nap while the shuttle was on route to Mars.

"Ok, ok…I'm awake…" replied Lucrezia sleepily, "Wait a minute, is Heero piloting?" asked Lucrezia surprised.

"Yes. You know I've always considered Heero an excellent pilot…besides, I needed a break too" Miliardo replied shocking Lucrezia.

"I would have never thought I would see the day when Milliardo Peacecraft would actually praise Heero Yuy…" said Lucrezia winding her fiancé up.

"Do you think you're funny?" asked Milliardo pretending to be upset.

"I.know.I'm.funny…" replied Lucrezia obviously having fun.

"I'll show you what real fun is…" Milliardo said starting to tickle his fiancée provoking a fit of laugher.

Suddenly, through the intercom, they heard Heero's monotone voice:

"I don't know whether you two are interested but, we will be touching down in less than two minutes…"

"Damn…" whispered Lucrezia blushing deeply, "the intercom has been on all the time…".

While Milliardo was muttering quite a few swearing words, realising he had been caught praising 'his worst enemy', Lucrezia went to the speaker and said to Heero that they were on their way back to the cabin.

Shortly after landing they went to the section of the base that both Milliardo and Lucrezia were using as their apartment. Then Heero was shown the room where he would spend the night. He only had to stay there one night because the next day he had to try to contact Dr J and let him know about the Preventer's plan.

After a quick dinner, the three of them overviewed for the last time the instructions Lady Une had given to them. Then they decided that it would be better going to bed and get some rest.

Heero went to his room. Since the base was still being constructed, the whole structure was very basic. The room itself was only a small space with barely space enough for a single bed and a wardrobe. That sufficed. Heero had been in much worse places than this one.

He undressed and leaving only his pants on, got his gun and put it under his pillow. He felt that, unless it was there, he would not sleep properly.

Once he was inside the bed and the light was switched off, Heero allowed himself, for the first time in the whole day, the luxury of thinking of Relena.

She looked even more beautiful than he remembered. He was very impressed with the way she had swallowed any pride she had and had gone to speak to him. That was yet another proof that the girl was much better than himself.

Heero felt very tired. In the last two months, ever since Relena had pronounced those three little words, he had been trying to give a name to the feelings that the golden haired girl inspired to him.

The problem was that Heero was not trained for this kind of things. He simply did not have enough data on the subject. He felt impotent not being able to decode these feelings.

He had to get more information. Unfortunately, right now, he did not have the time nor the resources for this task. He had to dedicate all his energy to this new mission. After all, like Relena herself had said, they had to put everything on hold but the mission.

Heero fell asleep feeling a bit better. Missions were good. They gave him the impression that he was still in control. A feeling he had been missing sorely after the war had been over. Everything related to Relena was simply too confusing. Yes. Missions were definitely good for Heero.


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The next day Heero woke up to find that Milliardo and Lucrezia were already gone. He had a really quick breakfast, he never ate too much anyway. Looking at the videocom he saw a blinking light, there was a message for him. It was Dr J. He was telling Heero where and when to meet him. He then went back to his room to pack up.

He found Dr J quite easily. The guy was unmistakable. They had to meet outside the base so they were wearing the spatial suits. Dr J had a small shuttle there waiting for them. It was only after they boarded it that Dr J started talking.

"Hello Heero, how are you?"

"I'm ok. So, tell me what happened…" replied Heero going straight to the point. Collaborating once again with that crazy man of Dr J was not a pleasure and Heero really wanted this mission to be over soon.

"Well, you pretty much know everything. I had a new assistant, even though I was being my usual cautious self, he still managed to get all the data for the gravitational project. Well, I then discovered that he was a member of a group of ex-soldiers that had belonged to the several factions that fought during the last war. They have re-united and found a common goal, they are seeking to create chaos so they will be able to fight. They only justify their lives through fighting…"

While Dr J was explaining all of this, Heero felt that he had really changed a lot. Once upon a time, he would have supported the same theory. Now, he felt, among other things, pity and anger that they would be prepared to threaten the peace everyone had fought so hard to obtain. This gave him an urge to find them and eliminate the problem as soon as possible.

"Can you show me where they are?" Asked Heero.

"Sure I can, but it's very dangerous…we don't want to get caught…" replied Dr J.

"I was not expecting it to be easy…we have a plan and I think its chances for success are higher than average…" answered Heero.

"Ok, then. I will take you there…" said Dr J.

"Well, let's get going then…" finished Heero.

During the relatively short trip to the other side of Mars where Dr J said they had their secret base. Heero, for the first time ever, was not fully concentrated on his mission. He kept trying to analyse his feelings towards Relena. He really felt he ought to find out before he saw her again. Had he been focused on the mission, his instincts would have picked up that something was not quite right…

As soon as they got to the base, Dr J decided to land behind it, hoping, of course, that they would not be detected. Heero got off the shuttle and with his spatial suit went to investigate. Dr J said to him he would wait there for him to make a quick get away if things got out of hand.

He had reached the base and had started inspecting it to find ways to get in and out of it when he felt a gun pressed on his back.

"Don't turn around if you appreciate your life…" said an unknown voice.

"You're getting the wrong guy, I do not appreciate my life that much so you can kill me if you want…" replied Heero with his proverbial calmness…

"As you wish…" replied the voice.

Suddenly another voice came from not too far away, and said:

"Don't kill him, we need him alive…"

Heero's blood froze. That was Dr J's voice.

"What the…" tried to say before he felt some gas invading his suit. They had injected something in the tube that connected the oxygen supply to the suit. He started coughing and felt himself drowsing away. All around him went black. The last thing he heard was:

"Fantastic, now we only need to re-train him. This way we will have our Perfect Soldier back in full form…"


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Relena's videocom buzzed. She pressed the button to find her future sister in law's face smiling at her.

"Hi Lu, how are things?"

"Hi, I'm calling you to let you know that Heero has left this morning. He's left us a message saying that he will contact us regularly to let us know the progress of the mission" explained Lucrezia.

"Ah, I didn't know he would get on with the mission so soon…" said Relena sounding quite worried.

"Relena, you shouldn't worry, you know that Heero is a professional. He knows what he's doing…" Lucrezia said quickly trying to comfort the blond girl.

"I know…is just that I can't help worrying about him. In any case, I will be meeting some of the representatives today and I will test the field to see if there is any opposition regarding the Terraforming Project…"

"How are you going to do that?" asked the dark haired woman.

"Well, I have been thinking that a clear way to see the representatives' true colours is by asking the committee to give more funds to Mars…this way I will see if there is anyone clearly opposing my proposal…there is a good chance that if any of the representatives is involved with the group, he or she will not be happy with giving more money to the project…" replied Relena.

"Sounds like a good idea to me…" commented Lucrezia.

"Well, I hope it is…Sally told me yesterday that they are checking on some of the representatives' that might have had a suspicious behaviour… She has promised a report within the end of this week…" said the Vice Foreign Minister.

"Well, how are you feeling?" asked Lucrezia intently.

"I'm ok…not having too many problems…The only major thing is that I am constantly hungry and I would sleep forever…" said Relena.

"Well…I hope everything turns out for the best…take care sweetie…" said Lucrezia.

"Me too…Lu…Me too…" said Relena almost with a whisper.

After greeting each other, Relena pushed the button to cut the communication and, grabbing her suitcase left her office to go to the meeting room.

There were about fifty representatives. Lady Une was already reading the meeting's agenda. She was leaving out, on purpose, Relena's request for funds. She had agreed with the younger girl that, in order to cause the surprise they needed, she would have to make an out of programme request.

The meeting went on for a couple of hours. It was coming to an end when Relena, getting up, said:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that this may come as a complete surprise to you but, I would like to issue a special request to the committee. I would like to allocate more funds to the Terraforming Project of Mars. I was thinking of something like increasing from the 2 we use now to 5 from the ESUN global budget, the reason being that I have been informed that there is a huge delay in the construction of the bases due to lack of funds…"

"But, Vice Foreign Minister…I am afraid but I don't think we can do that…You are already spending plenty of money in a project that we don't even know if it will succeed. We need extra funding for the colonies…There is colony X774 from the L4 sector that desperately needs repairs in their artificial atmosphere device…I'm sure that I speak on behalf of the committee when I say that I am quite certain that your request won't be accepted".

This reply was given by one of the representatives of L4, a guy called Carl Taylor. Relena knew him personally for he had asked her to go out with him at least a couple of times…

Following this comment, quite a few of the representatives approved of representative Taylor's opinion. All of the sudden though, senator Valliant asked for silence.

"I fully agree with Relena, I think more funds should be given to Mars. At the end of the day, I think we should pay more attention to a project that may eventually lead to conquering another planet and make it look like a second Earth…I'm giving you Relena, my vote for this issue…"

"Oh, why…thank you very much Mr Valliant. I really appreciate your support…" said Relena.

Thanks Mr Valliant's intercession, some of the representatives that where protesting suddenly changed their mind. Mr Valliant had been a senator in the Alliance's government and had been one of the major supporters of General Noventa. Everyone respected him because of that.

Carl Taylor, seeing this sudden, general change of opinion, said sounding quite upset:

"Well, Mr Valliant, Miss Relena, we'll see what the final decision will be, I expect a secret vote session to decide on your proposal…And, Miss Relena, let me tell you that I don't think your request is a good idea…"

Having said this, Carl Taylor left the meeting room not even bothering to make any excuses.


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Heero woke up to find himself tied down to what it looked like a hospital bed. Turning his head slowly he saw a IV needle connected to a tube. Looking up the tube saw a bag full of liquid. He didn't know precisely what that liquid was but had an approximate idea, they were probably drugging him.

Slowly, his brain started giving him the input he needed. He remembered being captured. He also remembered that Dr J was involved in whatever they intended to do with him. That scared the heck out of him. If Dr J had planned something for him, surely was not going to be pretty.

He tried to get rid of the tapes that held him down but found he could not tear them. He was about to start thinking of a plan to get out of there when he heard the room's door being opened.

"Good morning Heero…I hope you slept well…" Dr J said. Behind him there were a couple of people. One small guy with scruffy blond hair and light blue, clever eyes that looked at Heero with a strange mixture of curiosity and malice. The other one was very tall and looked as strong as the other looked clever.

"Go on…we have to start the training as soon as possible…" said the small guy talking to the big one.

"Ok…How much do you want me to hurt him?" asked the big guy talking to Dr J.

"Not too much…just enough to piss him off…but remember that tomorrow we will start the physical training so we do not want him to have too many broken bones…" replied Dr J.

Heero thought that he was hallucinating. What the hell where they talking about? Heero was to find out soon enough for the big guy pushed a button making the hospital bed to move to a vertical position, leaving Heero hanging from the tapes that held his wrists, neck and legs to the bed. After this, the big guy punched him hard on his stomach. Heero winced slightly. He realised that probably that was only the beginning. He was right. The giant kept hitting him and, essentially, beating the crap out of him. Heero thought that he would have not stopped had it not been because Dr J commanded him to.

"Enough. Now, Heero, I know you can still hear me. I want you to understand that we are doing it for your own good…We have a good plan to make the people from the colonies finally happy and fully independent and we need you for it…"

"Dr J…why?" Heero managed to say.

"We will tell you later. Now, I want you to try to rest. This is the last chance you get before we start the training for real…" the scientist replied.

With this the three men left the room. They did not even bother to put Heero back in a horizontal position so they left him hanging from the bed.

As soon as they left, the room went all dark. They started playing really loud hardcore music, then they stopped. Then they re-started but this time a completely thunderous sound of machines, guns being fired, mobile suits…those were war sounds, they kept alternating them with the hardcore music. The room started going freezing cold…then roasting hot…Heero remembered what this was…it was the first stage of the training he had to go through when he first met Dr J. He expected what happened next. That horrible phrase being repeated over and over again:

"Anything that fights you, is your enemy. Anything that tries to kill you, is your enemy…" and so on.

This time though, there was a new sentence:

"Anything that tries to convince you're wrong, is your enemy. YOU WILL KILL ALL YOUR ENEMIES!"

Heero tried for as long as possible to ignore, in this order, the pain from the wounds, the noise and the phrase, he even tried to shut himself down and sleep but a sensor located on his head 'told' the bed and it shook it violently every time he tried so he wouldn't fall asleep. He tried to think about what they were injecting him…it was probably some kind of serum that would strengthen him but…as he clearly remembered…would provoke a breakdown to his brain…this, together with the mental and physical torture he knew would have to endure 24 hours a day for as long as it took so he would be unable to feel anything anymore…

The only two things Heero didn't know about were, Dr J's plans and the fact that he had come up with a much improved training method he was testing on Heero for the first time.

He was going to be the perfect soldier. Again. Only that this time he would not fail any mission. Never.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Relena was relatively happy. Having Mr Valliant as an ally was really good thing. She was worried though. She did not like representative Taylor's reaction to her proposal. Lady Une had promptly instructed Sally to investigate him. Relena had heard Sally asking Wufei to perform the task himself. Her literal words had been 'we want to know everything, down to the colour of his underwear'. Wufei was really uncomfortable with her comment. Relena thought that Sally enjoyed confusing poor Wufei. That made her smile.

"Well, I am happy to see you smile…things can be that bad if you can still have that pretty smile of yours…"

Relena lifted her head to find Mr Valliant standing by her office's door.

"Mr Valliant…It's a pleasure to see you…but, how come my secretary didn't announce you?" asked Relena quite surprised.

"Oh, well…you know I can be very persuasive…and besides, I wanted to surprise you…how about coming for dinner tonight to my place? My wife is organising one of her fantastic dinners…This way we will be able to discuss further the funding for the Terraforming Project…I will invite a few people that will be happy to help us with this cause…" replied immediately Mr Valliant taking a seat.

"Oh...why Mr Valliant…how kind from you to come personally to tell me….My answer is yes…I'll be honoured" said the blond girl.

"Ok then, I will be sending one of my cars to pick you up, let's make it seven?" said Mr Valliant.

"Sure. Thank you Mr Valliant…I do appreciate your support…You know how much the Terraforming Project means to me…" commented Relena.

"Sure I do. I will see you later dear…I am really looking forward…You are a true fine lady…" said Mr Valliant getting up from the chair and, with a slight bow, turned around and headed towards the door.

"See you tonight then…" replied Relena not too sure that Mr Valliant had heard her.

Relena was pretty shocked…Mr Valliant had an entire team of assistants but he had come in person to issue her an invitation that could have easily been issued by email or videocom… Relena thought that she was getting over paranoid…'It must be the pregnancy…too many hormones' Relena thought.

She was still thinking about her conversation with the senator when the videocom buzzed. Pressing the button saw her brother's face, by the looks of it he didn't have happy news…

"What's wrong, Milliardo?" asked Relena worried not bothering with pleasantries.

"Heero has not reported ever since he left over a week ago…that is highly unusual…we were actually expecting him to report a few days ago…" replied the long haired, platinum blond man.

"Oh my gosh…Do you have any idea where he may be?" almost shouted Relena getting even more worried.

"Not really…He didn't even tell us where he was meeting Dr J who, by the way, has also disappeared…" replied Milliardo, looking genuinely concerned.

"Well...I will call Lady Une straight away…" said Relena resolutely.

"Ok. You do that… Lucrezia and I will do our bit here…I hope I will be able to give you better news next time…" said Milliardo.

"I hope so too brother…changing topic, I am meeting Mr Valliant for dinner tonight…he is supporting my idea of giving more funds to Mars…and we are also investigating Mr Carl Taylor from L4, he seemed particularly unhappy with this idea…I will call you tomorrow…" explained Relena.

"Ok. Take care sis…" replied Milliardo.

"I will…send my love to Lucrezia…" said Relena.

"I will…" said Milliardo pressing the button to finish the communication.

Relena stared at the black screen thinking.

"Heero…where are you?" said Relena aloud, talking to herself.


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

After closing the conversation with his sister, Milliardo went to find Lucrezia. She was in her office. Her job in the base was to check that the limited funds they were getting were used properly, she was also in charge of coordinating the task force. Milliardo was there as an ESUN representative and his role was more diplomatic than anything else.

As soon as he reached the office saw that Lucrezia was talking to one of the members of their staff through the videocom. He waited patiently till the conversation was over. Lucrezia then turned around on her chair and asked:

"How was Relena?"

"She looked fine...Lu, do you have anything to tell me?" asked Milliardo seeing her fiancée worried.

"Yes. I had a squad sent out yesterday. Officially they were sent to find a suitable place to build the new shuttle airport. Unofficially, I wanted them to see if they saw anything suspicious…" started explaining Lucrezia.

"Ok…and?" commented Milliardo.

"Well, from the six people I sent, only one managed to come back, and he is very badly wounded…he is in a coma...they are treating him now at the medical centre…" finished the short, dark haired woman.

"Oh no! What happened?" shouted Milliardo.

"I don't know, I hope he will wake up…he's the only one that can tell us…" replied his fiancée looking very worried.

"Right…I'm going out…I'll see if I find it out by myself…" said Milliardo getting up from the chair.

"NO! Milliardo I cannot let you go…what if something happens to YOU??" shouted Lucrezia copying her fiancé also getting up from the chair.

"Don't worry, I will be extra-careful, and I will be armed…" said Milliardo walking out the room not leaving any chance for Lucrezia to argue…She was too good at it and Milliardo feared he would lose…between his sister and his fiancée, he didn't know which one was more stubborn…

Milliardo boarded a single seat road vehicle adapted for the irregular Mars' surface. He had left immediately after his conversation with Lucrezia.

Locating the position where the squad had been attacked was not difficult. He found the small shuttle just behind a small mountain not too far away from the base. The shuttle itself was a wreck. The guy that had managed to reach the base barely alive had done so using the emergency capsule.

Milliardo stopped next to the shuttle and tried to see the inside of it. What he saw was not pretty, all five corpses had been brutally slaughtered. He looked around carefully, looking for any clue that could help to find out the reason of this massacre.

He was about to give up when he saw something on the floor of the shuttle. It was a small piece of fabric. He took it in his hands and saw that it had some kind of logo on it. It was torn so the logo was not clearly identifiable.

He then decided to take it back to the base. As soon as he reached it, went straight to Lucrezia. They scanned the piece of fabric and asked the computer to find any possible match.

While the computer was working, the videocom buzzed.

"Lucrezia here" said to the head of the medical division.

"Miss Noin, just wanted to say that our man has waken up…he wants to speak to you and Mr Peacecraft urgently…" informed the doctor.

"Sure…We'll be there in five minutes…" said Lucrezia relieved.

"Fine" said the doctor cutting the conversation.

Lucrezia turned around to face Millardo. He looked very sombre.

"What's up?" asked Lucrezia worried.

Milliardo pointed at the computer screen. The computer had identified the logo as the one from one of the companies that belonged to Mr Valliant.

"So?" asked Lucrezia confused.

"My sister was meeting him tonight…"


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

At exactly five to seven, Relena was called by the reception. The car that Mr Valliant had promised to send was in the parking lot waiting for her.

Taking her briefcase, containing all the documents that she thought might have come useful to support her idea, the blond girl left her office. This was the first time, since she had taken up the role of Vice Foreign Minister, that was leaving her office before eight pm.

Getting in the elevator with her faithful security guard, carefully selected and even more carefully trained by Heero Yuy, Relena went downstairs. She never heard her videocom buzzing, at that precise moment, inside her office.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop thinking, and worrying, about Heero. It was not so strange that he would not contact her for quite a long period of time, but this time was different, he was on a mission and, Heero Yuy never failed to report when he was on a mission.

Something had happened. She was sure of that. Relena had decided to leave the very next morning, to join her brother and Lucrezia in Mars. She wanted to solve this mystery herself.

They went to the parking lot where a black limousine was parked, her guard opened the door for her after she had greeted her assigned driver. She was expecting her driver to get inside the car along her, as usual, when the unthinkable happened. She heard her guard cursing and then some fist fighting, finally a gun being fired and her guard's body falling onto the ground. Then a man got in the car and, closing the door, ordered the driver to start the car immediately and go.

Relena tried to open the car's door when the man next to her stopped her by saying:

"It's useless…the car's locked. You will not go anywhere Miss Relena. Anywere else than where we are planning to take you, of course…"

The inside of the car was dark and she couldn't see very well who was she speaking to.

"Who are you? And what do you want from me?" asked Relena trying to keep herself as calm as possible.

"You'll know in due time. Mr Valliant will explain everything to you…" replied the unknown man.

"Is Mr Valliant involved in all of this?" asked Relena hoping her friend was not actually involved.

"Yes. Of course, he is the brain behind the whole operation…but I don't want to ruin his surprise by revealing too much…now Miss Relena, be a good girl and stay quiet…" replied the man.

Relena opted to obey him and stayed quiet. She was really scared. Especially now that Heero was missing, and no one, except her brother, knew where she was going to. Her secretary had gone home early because it was her grandson's birthday and Relena, after hearing the news of Heero's disappearance, had not remembered to tell her about the dinner. She was in serious trouble.

The car stopped after a while in front of Mr Valliant's residence. They led her immediately to Mr Valliant's study. She found two more men in there. One of them gave her the fright of her life.

"Representative Taylor? What are you doing here??" almost shouted Relena.

"My dear Miss Relena…you just cannot expect to know everything, can you? You're still so young and it is only natural that life has so many surprises for you…But, now, please take a sit…we will explain everything to you…I'm sure that being the sensible girl you are, you'll understand our point of view…" said Mr Valliant standing up from behind his desk.

"Understand your point of view?! You've killed my bodyguard! You've kidnapped me for pity's sake! How do you expect me to just sit down and listen…let alone, understand, your point of view? Have you all gone mad?" replied the blond girl throwing down the window her plans of staying calm.

"There, there…please, do take a seat before we change our minds about involving you in this and we have to do something not very kind to you…" added Mr Taylor standing up and showing her the chair next to him.

Relena decided that there was nothing better to do but sit down and listen to whatever they had to say.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

While Milliardo was trying to get through his sister, Lucrezia went, as promised, to visit the survivor from the attack.

Once she got the permission from the doctor, she entered one of the medical centre's patient rooms. Lying on the bed there was a man in a terrible shape. Lucrezia feared he would not be even able to speak.

"Since it would be silly to ask how you are, I will go, if you don't mind, straight to the point. Do you remember anything from the attack?" asked Lucrezia trying not to bother the man more than absolutely necessary.

"Yes. I remember all of it. Will never forget. It was that friend of yours. I think his name is Heero Yuy…" said the man with a very feeble voice but loud enough to be clearly heard.

"What? It cannot be…it is surely a mistake…" said Lucrezia trying not to shout.

"It was him alright…I remember his eyes. They were as cold and as hard as steel…He was like a machine…a killing machine…I only survived because I pretended I was already dead…luckily, he didn't check for our vital signs…otherwise I would not be here today…" explained the man suddenly looking very tired.

"Ok. Now, you need your rest, so I won't bother you anymore…thank you very much for the information…" said Lucrezia seeing that the man was on the verge of losing consciousness…

She literally ran back to her office where Milliardo was waiting for her. She found her fiancé there looking awfully worried.

"Relena's missing. Lady Une tried to reach her at the same time we were calling her and not getting any reply went herself to her office only to find it empty…We're more than certain that Mr Valliant is behind all of this since he's also missing…" said Milliardo, as soon as Lucrezia had entered the room.

"Well, guess who is behind our shuttle's massacre…" added Lucrezia, not daring to say it herself.

"Heero Yuy?" tried Millardo.

"Exactly. The attack's survivor is pretty sure about it. From what he's explained to me, I fear we've lost the Heero we used to know…Apparently, he was as ruthless and cold blooded as he was when he first came to Earth…" said Lucrezia. Suddenly, realising the trouble Relena was probably in, remembered about the girl's pregnancy, sitting down on her chair, Lucrezia started going all pale.

"Lucrezia…" was all Milliardo managed to say before their videocom buzzed again. Milliardo pushed the button to show Lady Une's face on the screen.

"Lady Une...We've got some awful news…" said Milliardo

"What a coincidence, me too…" replied Lady Une sarcastically.

"The responsible behind the shuttle's killings is Heero…" said Lucrezia standing behind Milliardo.

"Sally and Wufei have discovered that representative Taylor has been involved in some nasty business with Mr Valliant for quite some time…And, we still have no idea where Relena is…We've sent a troop to both Mr Valliant and Mr Taylor's residence to investigate if they may be involved with Relena's disappearance…" replied Lady Une in what seemed a competition to see who had the worse piece of news.

"We think that Heero has been re-trained…that makes him not only incredibly dangerous but totally unpredictable..." said Milliardo.

"For the time being you should increase security to the very maximum. Not that this will hold Heero should he decide to attack but, at least, that will buy you some time. I have called to duty all the special preventers and we are running a full scale investigation now. I will try to keep this from the press but I don't think I will be able to do that for too long…" explained Lady Une.

"Ok, roger about security, but I am going to Earth straight away…" said Milliardo.

"No, stay there. I have asked Duo Maxwell to join you…I think you will need all the reinforcements you can get…and Milliardo, this is an order…" said Lady Une not giving room to any kind of argument.

Quick Author Note 2: I really love you guys for reviewing: Sweetangel4 (you were my first!), Youko Yoshimi, LaLaLaa( too many 'a'!), Sidekickwannabe, Bozena, Mint and Cynthia (with PR like you, who needs marketing!) And, last but not least: Un merci particulier a Kiwidieu, je suis très heureux toi apprécie mon fanfiction! Meme si il est en anglais!


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

"Let me introduce you to Mr Lacroix. He's one of the architects that have helped designing the latest built colonies…he will help us with our little project, of course, Françoise, you must know our Miss Relena, after all everybody knows you…" said Mr Taylor.

"I know about Mr Lacroix…I had never met him though…" commented Relena eager to know the reason why she was there.

"It's a pleasure to meet you in person, dear…" said Mr Lacroix, completely oblivious to the fact that Relena had not greeted him properly.

"Well, know that the introductions have been…" started to say Mr Valliant when a buzz interrupted him. It was an intercom installed on his desk. He exchanged a couple of sentences with whoever was on the receiver and then said: "Ok, I'm told we better make a move…Miss Relena, I hope you don't mind too much but, I am afraid we have to go to Mars…Don't worry, we can continue this conversation on the shuttle".

With this, Mr Valliant grabbed Relena's arm and made her get up and head to the shuttle's launch platform that Mr Valliant had in his residence.

They were airborne within less than ten minutes. From the air Relena saw a three cars approaching the residence with flashing lights on their roofs. She identified them as preventer's cars, she would have bet all the money she had that they were looking for her.

As promised by Mr Valliant, they indeed continued the conversation on their way to Mars.

"Miss Relena, as you probably know I am a big defender of the Terraforming Project of Mars. I think it is a fantastic idea…I don't really know if you actually planned this but, I am sure that with the right amount of funding, not the ridiculous amount we allocate now, we will be able to finish the colonisation of Mars in much less than the 50 years you predicted…Our target is making Mars a place to live much more like the Earth. We think that the colonies have been a good way to get men living in outer space but now, the colonies are almost obsolete, they cost a fortune to maintain and they are nowhere near as pleasant to live in than Mother Earth. That is why we have decided to take over this Terraforming Project of yours and give it a little push in the right direction so we can complete it a lot faster…" Mr Valliant said getting quite excited the more he talked.

"That is all very good Mr Valliant but, as you know, our budget is quite tight, we will not be able to afford this without increasing even more the taxes the citizens pay. And we cannot ask them to pay more. The ESUN economy is still recovering from the war…" commented Relena.

"Of course, we have predicted this too, Miss Relena. That is where you get in the picture, ESUN will have to do what we say or we will threaten them with crashing the colonies into Mars with the new device that Dr J has invented for us. In any case we will eliminate the colonies, whether this happens sooner or later…they will be useless anyway, we will start with the oldest, less productive ones…till we will eliminate them completely…" added Mr Taylor.

"What?? We cannot do that! There are families living there, we should ask them whether they want to leave their colony and I fear that most of the people will say no…besides why would you threaten ESUN with eliminating the colonies if you have intentions of doing it anyway?" said Relena hoping that if they let her talk she would convince them.

"Regarding the threat, as long as they don't know, we can tell them anything we want. And regarding the population, that will not be an issue Miss Relena…" said Mr Valliant.

"Of course it will be an issue! We cannot force an entire colony to move to Mars without asking their opinion first!" said Relena increasing the volume of her voice.

"And, tell me, who said we will move the colony's population to Mars? I don't recall saying it…" Said Mr Valliant completely calm. It took a few seconds for Relena to understand the meaning of Mr Valliant's words. She completely understood when Carl Taylor added:

"We are planning to populate Mars only with genetically engineered people. I mean, the New Types. They will be the perfect population, they will be organised, polite, hard working people that will never give problems to neither Mars' government nor the ESUN's. It is truly the perfect solution. We will get rid of all the sick population from the colonies who have only given problems ever since day one…"

Relena could not believe what she was hearing. This was madness. These people were sick. And they were making her sick too.

"You cannot do that! You are talking about millions of people here!" Relena protested.

"Miss Relena…I think this is a bit too much for you to handle right now, Carl, can't you see that she needs to think it over? She will see it a lot clearer when she thinks of the benefits that this will bring to ESUN…" said Mr Valliant.

"And what if she does not change her mind?" Asked Carl Taylor talking as if Relena was not there.

"Well, in that unfortunate case, we still have the plan B and Miss Relena here will be the perfect subject to test the capacities of our Perfect Soldier" said Mr Valliant puzzling and, at the same time, terrifying Relena.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

"What is your name?" asked Dr J.

"My name is Project Zero" replied the soldier formerly known as Heero Yuy.

"What is your mission?" asked Dr J.

"To kill the enemy" replied Project Zero.

"And who's the enemy?" insisted the scientist.

"Anyone that wants to kill me, is the enemy, anyone that fights me, is the enemy, anyone that says I am wrong, is the enemy. I kill the enemy" replied Project Zero.

"Good boy. Now, I will give you this medicine, it will help you to rest" said the doctor injecting some liquid into Project Zero.

Project Zero lay on his bedroom's bed. Dr J switched off the lights and left him alone.

The project had been a complete success, as far as Dr J was concerned. Project Zero was the best soldier Dr J had ever seen. Completely cold blooded, focused exclusively on his mission. This time his creation would not disappoint him.

They had finished the training. Their weapon was ready for use. Project Zero was three times as strong as Heero Yuy. He was also more ruthless. His brain now operated in the same exact way than the Zero system had done. All of this without any mechanical implants. They had managed to change the chemical values in his brain. The person they had known up to know code named Heero Yuy, did not exist anymore. This time, in order to avoid any risk of failure, they had got rid entirely of the soldier's humanity.

Dr J, one of the previous leaders of the colonies' resistance group, was betraying all his beliefs and had made his skills available to this new cause. The Terraforming Project of Mars.

He went back to his laboratory, to find the scruffy blond haired man whose name was Pieter van der Veert. He asked Dr J after their project.

"How is he doing?" Pieter asked.

"He's almost ready. Now he's resting. He is not able to sleep for it is impossible for him to shut down his brain. I have given him some medicine to help him relax. His senses are constantly on alert. He's just perfect" replied Dr J.

"Well, now all we need is for dear Miss Relena to come here. From what you said, it will be the only way to test he really is ready, if Miss Relena does not cooperate, we will ask Project Zero to complete the mission Heero Yuy failed to" Dr J's colleague stated.

"Of course. This will definitely be the final test" agreed Dr J.

"Now, we should get back to those blueprints. Our space unit has already located an old gundanium processing plant. They will bring it to us here so we can start re-building the Gundams" said Pieter.

"No, not the Gundams. THE Gundam. We will only build one. But this time it will be much better than the other five combined. This has to be the ultimate Gundam. And it will be Project Zero to pilot it" explained Dr J.

"That will be good but, what if the other pilots have the same idea? Won't it be difficult to fight four Gundams with only one?" asked the blond man.

"Not really. Especially since, after Project Zero will complete this mission, his next will be to eliminate the other four Gundam Pilots" said Dr J.

"All four of them? Why not using them for this same project? This way we will have five perfect soldiers…" enquired Pieter.

"No. The only perfect soldier is Project Zero, the former Heero Yuy was the only pilot I knew able to survive the old training process. The others do not stand a chance with this new one…hence it is better we eliminate them…" said Dr J resoluted.

"Ok then. But first things first. I see our guest has finally arrived. We should go to the shuttle launch platform to greet her as she deserves…" said Pieter looking at a communication screen.

"Sure. Let's go…" said Dr J following Pieter outside their lab.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Lucrezia had been worried about Relena's pregnancy ever since Lady Une had reported her missing. She had been wondering whether she should have told Milliardo.

Now that they were certain that Relena's disappearance was directly linked to Heero's and that the perfect soldier was responsible for the shuttle killings, Lucrezia had no more doubts.

She went to Milliardo's office, located next to her own. Milliardo was speaking to someone through the videocom. It was Duo Maxwell.

Lucrezia waited till the conversation was over and, before Milliardo could say anything, she said:

"Milliardo, I know I should have told you straight away but I promised I wouldn't. I don't know how should I say it to make it easier to cope with so I will just say it…"

"What is it?? You're giving me goose bumps…" interrupted Milliardo growing more and more concerned.

"Well…Milliardo, your sister is pregnant" Lucrezia said at once.

"WHAT!!??" Milliardo shouted getting up from the chair so suddenly he actually toppled it over.

Lucrezia thought of running as fast as she could. She would rather face fifty starving lions than Milliardo when he was angry and now, he had every right to be furious.

"She's almost three months pregnant, she told me three weeks ago before this operation started" added quickly trying to calm him down.

"When? And specially, WHO?" demanded Milliardo.

"I'm not sure I should tell you…I promised Relena I wouldn't…" said Lucrezia bracing herself literally.

"I don't give a damn who you've promised it to. I demand to know who was the bastard that made my little sister pregnant, she's only eighteen for crying out loud!" kept shouting Milliardo going beyond furious.

"Well, I don't think you will let go unless I tell you so I will, it was Heero. After the terrorist attack in the palace almost three months ago. She asked him to stay with her for the night and he did" explained Lucrezia knowing that Relena would probably kill her for this.

"HEERO?? ASSASSIN HEERO?? THAT FUCKING BASTARD! THAT EVIL FUCKING RAPIST SON OF A BITCH!! I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!!" shouted Milliardo going all red because of sheer anger.

"Milliardo, it was consensual. You know you're sister is in love with him…and in any case, now we have a much bigger problem. We should focus on this now…" tried to say Lucrezia.

Making a visible physical effort to calm down, Milliardo picked up the chair and sitting down said in a whisper:

"You're right…but I will kill Heero as soon as I see him…no way he's getting away with this…In any case, Duo Maxwell is coming here and has brought with him Trowa and Quatre. They offered themselves to help. Sally and Wufei are also on their way here. They should arrive anytime now…"

The videocom interrupted him. It was Sally.

"Just wanted to say that I believe we've found some kind of secret base, in reality it's been Wufei to spot it. He was running a thermal scan and has found something beneath the surface at about three thousand kilometres from where you are. That is not even thirty minutes away by shuttle. What do you want us to do, Milliardo?"

"Ok. You come here with Wufei, I would like to leave you two with Lucrezia in charge of the security of the base, I will call Duo and ask him to go straight there. I am heading there myself right now. Please transmit the coordinates to the database so I can forward it to Duo…" replied Milliardo.

"Roger that…" said Sally.

"Thanks Sally…" said Milliardo cutting the conversation. He then turned around to see Lucrezia ready for one of her arguments so, before she could speak Milliardo said:

"No, Lucrezia, you are not coming. I want you to stay here. This may not even be the real thing and if this is the case, then I will need someone I can trust here. Ok?"

"Ok. But please, be careful…" said a sad Lucrezia.

"I'm always careful, besides that is my sister and my future nephew or niece out there…" added Milliardo leaving his office.

Had it not been that the situation really didn't call for it, Lucrezia could have smiled: Milliardo was already thinking of the little being growing inside the former Queen of the World as a member of his family.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

The shuttle had landed on the launch platform. Relena had tried, during the entire trip, to convince Mr Valliant that the Terraforming Project did not need these kind of desperate actions, that if they released her, she would keep fighting to give more funds to Mars but peacefully. She begged them not to attack the colonies.

Unfortunately for her, they would not listen to her reasons, she felt incredibly frustrated and also very scared. As soon as they landed Relena saw by the shuttle the last person she would have expected: Dr J. He was there with another guy with messy blonde hair that introduced himself as Dr Pieter van der Veert. His name was awfully familiar to Relena but she could not remember where from exactly.

As it was obvious to Mr Valliant that Relena was not going to cooperate, ordered the guards to take her into custody. Mr Valliant then left with Mr Taylor, Mr Lacroix and the two doctors.

Relena was taken to a room. They locked the door behind her and left her there sitting on a narrow bed. It was only then that she realised she had not eaten anything for the last twenty four hours. She was absolutely starving. She also needed a drink of water and a bathroom…

This kind of treatment would had been outrageous had it not been because there were bigger things at stake than her own health. But still, she needed some food fast. She was already feeling faint and she was sure this was not good for the baby.

"Hey! Is anybody there? I need to go to the bathroom!" Relena shouted. Then waited for a while. No reply. She was on her own. She tried again louder. Nothing. She decided then to just lay on the bed and wait to see if anyone came, for the time being she just had to ignore her needs…

Instead she started thinking where she had heard the name Pieter van der Veert. After a while, it came up, he was one of the genetic engineers that had cooperated with the training Heero had gone through. She had read it on some confidential files about Heero that she had requested to see as a special favour. Therefore, if he was there, it could only mean that Heero was also in this base. Then she remembered Mr Taylor's words: 'if anything else fails, she will be the perfect test for our perfect soldier…'. Relena realised what all of this meant. They wanted Heero to kill her!

Meanwhile Mr Valliant was about to make his announcement. He had prepared an statement and had requested some time to the worldwide TV channel.

"This is a message for the people from ESUN. I wish to declare that I have taken Relena Darlian-Peacecraft as a prisoner, unless 50 of the ESUN's resources are immediately allocated to the Terraforming Project of Mars, she will have to die. In case this is not a powerful enough reason, then the colonies will be crashed against the red planet. My team of scientists have invented a device that creates an artificially generated gravitational field in Mars. This device can be enhanced so much that all the colonies orbiting at the LaGrange point will be attracted to the Mars' surface. You have twenty four hours to take the decision. It is up to you representatives of ESUN to decide the fate of both the Vice Foreign Minister and, of course, the colonies"

Mr Valliant smiled. He was satisfied with the way the plan was going. Little he knew his luck was about to run out.

At the same time that his speech was being aired, Milliardo, Duo, Quatre and Trowa had arrived on the surface immediately above the secret base. Wufei was already there. He had decided to ignore Sally's command and had jumped off their shuttle to be there waiting for the guys. He thought that, since he had made the discovery, he deserved to be part of the action…

All five men discussed what was the best plan. Milliardo decided that the best option was to separate in three different groups: Quatre and Trowa would go and find the so-called gravitational device and would have to disconnect it. Wufei and Duo had to find Mr Valliant, much to the disappointment of both since one, Wufei, preferred to work alone, Duo did not want to be with a guy whose dark and humourless personality could only compete with Heero's. Milliardo would try to find his sister and, regretfully, he would also look out for Heero. They were all armed but the plan was not to kill anyone unless they found themselves in a life threatening situation.

After a while they finally found a way in. There was a small door carved in the mountain where the base was. Duo, using his well known ability to sneak in anywhere, forced the entrance hoping that the room would have a pressurization unit so they would not mess up with the environment inside the base. Thankfully the room itself was only an outside room. There was another door in front of them challenging Duo's skills yet again.

As soon as they were inside the designated groups separated to try to fulfil their mission as soon as possible and, as Duo put it, 'get the hell out of there'.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Trowa and Quatre made their way swiftly. This mission had an extra difficulty. They did not really know whether this was the right base, although it was quite likely, nor if the gravitational device was actually there and above all, they had no idea where it would be. Since they did not know the lay out of the base they had to take an extra risk and check every single room. All of this without getting caught and avoiding any casualty. It was definitely a difficult mission.

All of them had a radio on them so they could communicate whatever information they thought may have been useful for the rest.

Quatre, with his extraordinary memory, tried to map out every section they had seen. Now they were hiding in some kind of storage room since there were a few guards coming their way through the corridor.

Meanwhile Wufei and Duo went the opposite direction doing the exact same thing. Wufei, taking a more aggressive approach, kept knocking out every single guard they had found along the way. Duo, frowning, had no option but to copy his fellow Gundam pilot's behaviour.

Finally they arrived in what it seemed some kind of control room. They could hear some voices coming out from it. Then they heard Milliardo's voice in the radio:

"Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to get Mr Valliant until Quatre and Trowa confirm the disconnection of the gravitational device".

"Damn! I hate these kind of approaches. The best defence is the attack!" complained Wufei.

Duo was worried, it was no good if Wufei got restless, he became totally unpredictable when he did so. In any case they hid in a small space located right next to the door waiting for further instructions.

At the same time Milliardo kept checking every room he saw till he found one with a locked door. Forcing it he saw the thing he wanted to see the most: his sister was laying on a bed, sleeping.

"Relena…wake up…we've come to take you home…" whispered.

Relena heard her brother's voice. She thought she was hallucinating. There was no way her brother would find her so quickly…she was almost afraid when she finally opened her eyes. Looking up she saw Milliardo's concerned face.

"Milliardo? What…what are you doing here…I mean…how?" started asking.

"Shush…now, don't ask any questions, we'll have time to speak later, now…let's go…I have to get the two of you out of here…" said Milliardo shocking Relena.

"What…how do you…I mean…Lucrezia has…told you?" said Relena blushing deeply realising her brother knew about her pregnancy.

"Yes, but don't be mad at her, I'm not mad at you…but wait till I have a word or two with Heero…" Milliardo said trying not to get angry again…

They were about to leave when Trowa informed everyone that they had located the gravitational device. They had tried to disconnect it but it had a computer algorithm that prevented any kind of interference. They needed a password they obviously did not have. Quatre decided to put a bomb on it, they would blow it up the second Duo and Wufei had found Mr Valliant.

After receiving this message, Duo and Wufei entered the room where they had heard the voices coming from. Inside the room they found Mr Valliant, Mr Taylor and Mr Lacroix. They pointed their guns at them and told them to get up slowly with their hands up. Wufei gave Quatre the green light while Duo handcuffed all three men. Then the American pilot told them to start walking towards the shuttle launch platform, followed closely by the Chinese one.

A common thought in all five men was that it had been easy, too easy…and, as usual, in these kind of situations, when something went wrong, it went very wrong.

All of three groups met half way. They had almost made it to the platform when they met Heero. He was standing in front of the shuttle. Relena gasped when she saw him. He looked awful. His face was all scarred and he had bruises all over the place. The worse thing were his eyes. They had absolutely no emotion whatsoever. It was like a robot. Like he was not alive. Even worse than when she had met him on the beach…

Suddenly Dr Pieter coming from behind the group shouted at Heero:

"Project Zero, your mission is to kill Relena Peacecraft. Kill her and then kill the rest…".

Then something strange happened, Heero, after hearing the girl's name winced,…that name…it was so familiar…where had he heard it before…Heero's face cringed like if he was in pain… He couldn't execute the order…could he?


	20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Heero stood there, holding his head with his hands, Milliardo and the Gundam pilots did not know what to do. Then Dr J repeated the order to Heero.

"Kill Relena Peacecraft, Project Zero, you have to kill Relena Peacecraft".

Then Relena shouted:

"Heero! You can't kill me, your mission is to protect me, remember?".

"Heero? Is that my name?" said Heero looking at Relena incredibly confused.

"Yes, don't you remember?" asked Trowa.

"Yes, Heero, we are your friends, remember?" added Quatre.

"Heero? My name…You? My friends…I don't understand…my brain does not understand this information…" said Heero.

What happened next was unreal. It all happened inside one fraction of a second. No one could actually have predicted it, so no one did nothing to prevent it. Dr Pieter, losing patience and seeing that Heero was not going to execute the order, took a gun from one of the guards and, without thinking twice shot Relena. The bullet hit the girl's stomach and the impact made her fall backwards.

After this, everything was sent into sheer chaos. Milliardo caught Relena's falling body before it hit the ground. Trowa shot Dr Pieter and Duo, at the same, time shoot Dr J who was about to shoot Heero. Wufei and Quatre pushed a completely shocked Mr Valliant, Mr Lacroix and Mr Taylor inside the shuttle, Duo grabbed Heero and took him into the shuttle as well. Milliardo took Relena in his arms and ordered everyone to board the shuttle. They had to get to the base as soon as possible, Relena urgently needed medical help.

All of this while the other guards had started firing at them, hitting Duo in one of his arms, luckily only scratching him. One of the bullets actually hit Heero as well, the bullet getting inside one of his shoulders.

"Heero!" shouted Duo, seeing the blood coming out from his friend's shoulder. Unbelievably enough, Heero did not even wince. It was like he felt nothing. Then Duo shouted at Milliardo:

"Man, we need to get to the base. Heero's been hit as well!".

"You've been hit too!" replied the platinum haired man.

"It's only a flesh wound! Let's get the hell out of here!" replied Duo.

Wufei and Trowa were guarding the three men while Quatre piloted the shuttle out of the base. He had to blow the gate up with the shuttle's laser beam. Quatre shouted, via the shuttle's outside speaker, to all the guards to get out of there…the lack of pressure from outside would kill them all if they did not leave the room and took shelter someplace else.

Going as fast as he had ever gone, Quatre got them to the base in a record time of less than twenty minutes. He did not care whether he wrecked the shuttle's engine.

In the back of the shuttle, a desperate Milliardo was trying to stop the blood coming out his sister's wound. Thankfully she had passed out. At the same time Duo was trying to do the same with Heero. Heero was still very confused and did not understand what was going on. It looked like his brain had been completely burned.

When they finally got to the base, Sally was already waiting there. Taking Relena to the medical centre the Chinese doctor fought several hours to save the girl's life. Meanwhile, the other doctors from the centre, took the bullet out from Heero's shoulder and also took care of Duo's scratch. They left Heero sedated and tied up on his bed so they could run some tests on him as soon as he got better.

Wufei and Trowa locked the three prisoners in a room and went to the medical centre where they found Quatre and two very worried Milliardo and Lucrezia sitting in the waiting room.

After what it seemed an eternity, Sally came out the operating theatre looking incredibly tired and very upset. After telling everyone that Duo was fine and that both Heero and Relena were out of danger and recovering, she asked both Milliardo and Lucrezia to come with her to a separate room.

"Milliardo, Lu, I'm not sure whether you knew this for it was still early…" Sally started saying.

"We know she's pregnant…" interrupted Lucrezia.

Hearing this Sally nodded and said with a very sad voice:

"Well, I am terribly sorry to say this but, while we managed to save Relena's life, there was nothing we could do regarding the baby's. She had a miscarriage due to the trauma caused by being shot".


	21. Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

Both Lucrezia and Miliardo were devastated when they heard what Sally had told them. Especially Lucrezia who had known for the longest and she felt responsible for not having told anyone. She thought that if she had, maybe security would have been increased…

"That is just stupid. I was there Lu, I could have prevented it and I didn't! If there is anyone responsible for what has happened, that was me. Once again, I've failed my sister…Damn it! I'm just so fucking useless!" Milliardo shouted hitting one of the walls with his fist almost hurting himself in the process.

"Milliardo, I don't think it's a good idea hurting yourself right know, in any case it's nobody's fault, if any one must be blamed that must be that so-called doctor that shot Relena…but, from what I hear, he has already paid for it with his life…" Said Sally really hoping this could help, if only a little bit, to calm him down.

"You're right Sally. In any case we need to be strong now for Relena, God knows how she's going to feel after we tell her…she was so very much looking forward having this baby…" said Lucrezia starting to cry…

Milliardo took her in his arms and hugged her trying to comfort her. Sally decided that it was better to leave them alone and started heading towards the door. She had her hand on the doorknob when Milliardo said:

"Please Sally, do not tell anyone about my sister's baby. I don't think Relena has told anyone but Lucrezia and I'm not sure she would like anyone else to know…".

"Of course, I'm a doctor, we have very strict rules regarding the patient's confidentiality…" replied smiling softly adding before leaving "I'm going to check on Heero now but if you two need anything at all, please let me know…".

"Thanks Sally…" replied Milliardo.

As soon as Sally had left Milliardo gave up his strong façade and started crying as well. The couple stood there hugging each other feeling very sorry for the blond girl that was fighting for her life and, deep down, they were also sorry for Heero…

Sally, good to her word, went to Heero's room and with the help from the two doctors from the base, started performing a series of tests to see how bad the harm done to both Heero's brain and body was. She was shocked that the young man had been able to survive. This time Dr J had done an enormous amount of damage. Sally was not sure Heero would actually be able to fully recover.

Meanwhile, Wufei had got a message from Lady Une telling him she was coming to Mars to pick up personally the prisoners to take them before the jury. They had been formally accused by ESUN's assembly of High Treason and they were facing life in prison. They were lucky that Relena had insisted so much in removing the death penalty as a way to pay for crimes like treason or murder. Also Lady Une had organised for the special preventers to go to the base, arrest everyone there and look out for the group's space unit. Wufei went straight away to tell the other three Gundam pilots, they were in the kitchen trying to have something to eat but, given the circumstances, no one was really hungry, not even Duo.

As soon as they were allowed to, Lucrezia and Milliardo whent to sit next to Relena's bed and waited for her to wake up. She looked rather peaceful now. Lucrezia's heart contracted in pain, she looked far too innocent to be involved in this kind of things. Milliardo feared that this incident would finally destroy her pure soul and it would turn her as bitter as he was. Only thinking of it made him mad. All he really wanted to do was to go to the cell where those three men were and place a bullet between their eyes.

After a while, Relena opened her eyes. She started looking around. She saw Lucrezia staring at her and her brother sleeping in a chair next to his fiancée. Relena did not understand what she was doing in a hospital bed till she tried to get up and the pain in her stomach reminded her of what had happened. The first thing she said was:

"Heero…where's Heero? Is he alright?" her voice was only a weak whisper.

"Sweetie…Heero's been taken care of. Sally is now running some tests…She'll let us know…but he is here…you don't need to worry about him now…" replied Lucrezia.

Suddenly Relena remembered her baby. She was afraid to ask confirmation to what she already suspected. It took all the courage she had left to ask:

"Lu…tell me the truth, I have lost my baby, haven't I?"

Lucrezia had a knot blocking her throat. This girl was far too clever for her own good. This was the most painful thing Lucrezia had ever done.

"Sweetie…I don't know what to say…I am so sorry…I wish I could tell you differently but…I cannot tell you lies…yes darling, I am devastated to say that you have lost your baby…I am so sorry…" Lucrezia replied starting to cry while with one hand held the blond girl's hand and caressed her face with the other, trying to give her the courage she desperately needed to overcome such tragedy.

Relena's reaction was even more distressing. She just went quiet, shut her eyes and started a silent weeping.


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

"Relena…" Milliardo said waking up to see his sister crying silently.

"Leave me alone…" Relena whispered without opening her eyes.

"Relena…" repeated Milliardo.

"Please, I need to be alone…" insisted Relena.

Lucrezia, understanding Relena's emotions, grabbed Milliardo's arm and, pushed him towards the door. Just before closing it Lucrezia said:

"Darling, if you need anything, please let us know, ok?".

Relena nodded and turned her head in the opposite direction from the door. Relena would have screamed out loud her misery had it not been because the stitches in her stomach hurt so damn much. Now that her baby was gone she felt empty both physically and emotionally. Now, she had lost the only thing that linked her to Heero. Especially now that she had seen the state Heero was in, she had lost hope that he would ever return her feelings. The worse thing is that she was not even strong enough to get up and see Heero just yet. That was the story of her relationship with Heero, always so close but yet so far…she began crying loud but realised that she could not even do that because of the pain the sobs produced in the stitches...she thought she would go mad…

Meanwhile, Lucrezia went to see Heero. He looked every bit as bad as everybody had told her. He had lots of scratches and bruises everywhere. From what Sally had said, he had been beaten up numerous times. Some of the scratches had been done on the top of older ones. But, although physically was a mess, the worst damage had been done to his brain. At the end of the day, Sally knew that all the broken bones would heal and the bruises would end up fading away. What she did not know was whether Heero would ever get back to his normal self.

The few times that Heero had waken up he just stared blankly at the ceiling and did and said nothing unless ordered to do so. He was like in some kind of coma only that he was actually conscious. Sally decided to call an specialist that had known during her time in the Alliance's Army. He was a neurosurgeon and was an expert for drug induced brain damage.

Wufei, Quatre and Trowa that were just sitting quietly in one of the base's staff common room. Then Duo came in, he had been getting his arm checked and also he had checked on Heero to see if there had been any improvement. Quatre, seeing the American man, asked:

"So how are things?"

"I'm just fine, I will have to take some antibiotics but I will be fine. The ones that worry me are Relena and Heero. Sally has just told me that Relena has woken up and with some time she will recover from her wound. I'm sure there is something they don't want to tell us but I guess they'll let us know if they think it is appropriate. The biggest problem is Heero. He is totally not reacting to anything but direct orders" replied sitting down and, for a change, looking sad.

"What do you mean?" asked Trowa breaking his proverbial silence.

"Well, the doctors have found out that he's like programmed or something. He only replies when asked yes or not questions. And he only reacts if they give him a direct order like sit up, lay down…They say it looks like a robot…It's pretty scary…" explained the braided man.

"That is so…" was saying Wufei when they got interrupted by Lucrezia coming into the room. She announced that Lady Une had just landed. She was now visiting Relena and Heero but she would come and thank them personally right after that.

Lady Une first visited Heero. She saw the state he was in: it was useless, she could not have spoken to him and could not have told him what, unfortunately, had to tell him.

She then went to visit Relena and, luckily, she was awake. She looked incredibly sad. Lady Une, of course, did not know the real reason for no one had actually told her about the miscarriage so she assumed she was upset about the whole thing. Not really knowing what to say, she told her about the Assembly's decision regarding Mr Valliant and the others. There was so much evidence against them that the Assembly had decided to do just a quick hearing. It would be almost a formality. No way they were going to get away from it. Besides they were also guilty of abducting a member of the government and causing a direct attack on her life.

Then she added something that got her even more worried and depressed if that was ever possible.

"Unfortunately we had to report the Assembly about the five people that Heero has killed, I'm not sure of what will happen exactly but I know that there will be some kind of trial against him…"

After saying this Relena tried to say something but, overcome by all the last 48 hours' events plus this new piece of news, she just fainted.


	23. Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Three

"Relena…Relena! Wake up…Oh gosh…don't do this to me!" said Lady Une running to the intercom device.

"Sally! I need you in Relena's room now. Come here immediately!" shouted Lady Une.

Sally got there in no time at all, you really did not argue with Lady Une if she was giving you a direct order. She saw instantly the reason of such urgency. Relena was unconscious again.

"What's happened?" asked the American-Chinese doctor while checking the girl's vital signs.

"I don't know…I was telling her that Heero will be prosecuted for killing those five men and she fainted…I wasn't thinking properly…I had to imagine that it would affect her pretty badly…is just that…" tried to explain Lady Une looking incredibly concerned.

"What? Oh gosh…that must have been a real shock…Well, in any case, it's better not to worry... She's just very weak now, but her vital signs are normal so she will probably wake up later…now we should leave her to rest…" said Sally trying to calm her superior down. Then the two women left the room.

Lady Une, not fully recovered from the fright, went to speak to the guys. They were still sitting down in the staff room. Milliardo and Lucrezia joined them to see what Lady Une had to say.

"Firstly, I would like to thank you all for what you've done for ESUN. I am also here to inform you that the Assembly is considering your candidature for the Silver Star Award for your services to ESUN. They will decide on this matter in less than a month. Just to warn you that, if you are awarded, you will be required to attend a ceremony…"

Everyone looked at each other. A Silver Star! That was the highest honour that ESUN gave anyone. The first one to react was Milliardo:

"Why…Lady Une, that would be fantastic…"

"Yes it would be and, I really hope you do get awarded, you deserve it…now, I am leaving with the prisoners. I already have a team collecting the members of the group from the terrorist base. I will all let you know the outcome of the trial. Wufei, you are in charge of taking Heero back to Earth as soon as Sally considers him fit enough. Unfortunately, he will be prosecuted for murder but, I guarantee you, we will do our best to help him…" added quickly.

"WHAT? Prosecuted? What for? HE DID NOT WANT TO DO IT! HE WAS ORDERED TO DO IT! HE'S NOT EVEN HIMSELF FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!" shouted Duo getting up from his seat.

"We know that Duo…we have to convince the judge of it though…Now, I really must go…I will see you all soon…" said Lady Une leaving the room in a hurry...

Meanwhile, Relena woke up to find herself alone in the room. She pressed the intercom button and asked for someone to come to see her.

A doctor came into the room and Relena told him she needed to see Lucrezia. A few minutes later, her future sister in law entered the room.

"What's the matter darling?" asked the dark haired woman.

"I need you to do me two favours. One is that I need you to contact Mr Daniel Wright. He was a friend of my father and one of the finest lawyers I know. I would like you to tell him that Relena needs his help for Heero's trial. Ask him to contact Lady Une for details. Then, I would need to see Heero, I want to tell him myself about the trial…" explained Relena making a visible effort to speak so much.

"But honey, you cannot get up just yet, you're still too weak…" said Lucrezia.

"Lu, I know that…I just was wondering if there was any way that Heero could be brought here…" replied the blond girl.

"Well, I guess we could ask Sally if he is fit enough to take him here…" said Lucrezia going to the intercom.

A few minutes after, Sally and another doctor entered the room with Heero sitting on a wheelchair.

Relena's heart cringed once more at the sight of him. He still looked pretty bad. Especially his eyes. They had lost every bit of life in them. She did not allow this to discourage her. Once she had the wheelchair placed next to her bed, Relena tried to swallow the knot that was blocking her throat and with a huge effort, managed to say his name. Then, to the immense shock from everyone in the room, Heero replied.

"Relena…"


	24. Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Four

Everyone in the room was speechless. Could it be that Heero had actually recognised Relena? It did sound impossible since he was unable to recognise anyone else.

"Do you know who I am?" asked Relena hesitantly.

Heero seemed to think hard, then replied softly:

"I think so…It's the only name I remember…".

Sally's jaw dropped leaving her open-mouthed. This had been the longest sentence they had heard him say since they had found him. Lucrezia just did not know what to think.

"Is that why you couldn't kill me?" asked Relena, although she was trying not to get her hopes to high, could not help feeling all warm inside knowing that hers, was the only name Heero actually remembered.

"I'm not sure…I don't know what happened…" replied Heero very honest.

Listening to him, Relena thought that he sounded like a little boy, she felt her heart heavy in her chest seeing him so weak and defenceless. She vowed herself that, as long as she had energy, she would fight for him.

"Heero, you've been accused of doing something very wrong. Your actions will be judged by a jury on Earth. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Relena said like if she was talking to a small child.

"Yes" answered Heero.

"Sally, who will take care of him when he goes to Earth?" asked Relena suddenly realising that she was not going to be able to follow him.

"Don't worry about that Relena, I have contacted Dr David Greene, he's a neurosurgeon, and he's the best in his field…I've asked him to perform some test to assess the extend of the damage done to Heero's brain and, more importantly, how conscious he was when completing the missions assigned…" replied Sally.

"Thank you Sally…" said Relena feeling very tired. Her wound was starting to hurt again...

"You're welcome, now we have to leave. Relena, you should say goodbye to Heero. I think he's fit enough to travel now, Wufei will take care of him…" said Sally.

"Ok. Heero? I just wanted to say that…no matter what…I will do all I can to help you, ok?" whispered Relena.

Heero just nodded. Then Relena moved her hand to place it on one of his. Heero looked at her not understanding. Relena just smiled and, withdrawing her hand said:

"I will see you soon…".

The other doctor pushed Heero's wheelchair out of the room followed by Sally. Lucrezia, before leaving, turned and said:

"They will take care of him while you're here…Now, for once, worry about you and try to get better…".

Only a week later Relena began to be able to start having some liquids, was able to sit up and, sometimes, even to get up from bed. Sally was shocked that she was making so much improvement so quickly but, tried to get her to slow down not wanting her to overdo it. Relena just replied that she needed to get back to Earth as soon as possible. Wufei had left the day after Relena had spoken to Heero. Duo, Trowa and Quatre had left to their respective home colony shortly after that.

One night Lady Une called. She had good news and a very bad ones that left everyone feeling very anxious.

The good news were that Mr Valliant had been convicted life in prison, Mr Taylor and Mr Lacroix had to serve 30 years, their sentence had been reduced due to the fact that they had cooperated to help the Preventers to catch everyone from the group.

The bad news, the ones that caused a huge commotion were that, although they had found Dr J's body, they had not been able to locate Dr Pieter's.


	25. Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Five

The trip back home had been much longer than usual. It was probably the fact that he was more than eager to get home as soon as possible.

After the last few days events, Duo had made up his mind. He had taken a decision regarding something very important in his life.

He got incredibly upset when he realised he'd just missed the bus that was supposed to take him home from the shuttle airport.

'The hell I'm going to wait till the next one…I'll get a taxi…' the American pilot thought. He was in such a hurry he did not care about the money he would have to spend for the taxi.

Finally, after what it had seemed an eternity, he was unlocking his apartment's door. He stepped in and dropped his suitcase and his jacket on the floor. He started looking around. There were no sounds coming from anywhere in the apartment.

"Hilde? Are you there?" Duo asked.

Not getting a reply, Duo insisted:

"HILDE!! WHERE ARE YOU?" Duo shouted.

Still not getting a reply, Duo went outside to the small shed where Hilde and himself had the scrap yard's office. Opening the door saw Hilde checking some files.

"Hey, Hilde! I've been looking for you…what are you doing here?" Duo asked sounding a bit more upset than he really intended.

"Well, I'm working Duo…you know, someone has to run this business of ours…" replied Hilde rather annoyed.

"Oops…I'm sorry Hilde…I…Oh, stop that…we need to talk…" said Duo going to her and making her stand up.

"Why do I feel all freaked out hearing you say this?" replied Hilde looking at Duo gravely.

"Well…Is just that I don't want to waste anymore time…" said Duo. Then he took Hilde's face in his two hands and, without any previous warning, just kissed her full in the mouth, giving Hilde the shock of her life.

"D…Duo…" Hilde managed to say as soon as Duo pulled away from her to get some air.

"I know…It was not very orthodox but, Hilde I love you. I have always loved you…I thought it was just a very deep bond of friendship but the last weeks' events have made me realise that I don't love you just a s a friend and I want to be with you for the rest of my life, if you allow me to…" said Duo quickly afraid that she might have interrupted him.

"But…Duo…I…" started saying Hilde.

"Please, say you'll think about it…" interrupted Duo.

"Duo, I'm trying to say yes, I do want to spend the rest of my life with you but…I just don't understand why you're so sudden about it…" replied Hilde looking a mix between confused and happy.

"Well, it's a long story but, I'll just say that I don't want to waste a minute of my life denying what I feel for you. I've always thought that I would have plenty of time to figure out what I wanted from life but, you just cannot be sure when everything will end…so, I want to make the most of it while it lasts…and I really want to share my life with you…I know that this is sudden, I hope I'm not freaking you out but, I would like us to get married someday…" explained Duo.

"Married? Hey, don't you think you're rushing things a little bit here? You've just asked me to be an item. Shouldn't we wait to see what happens?" asked Hilde looking very cute with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"I didn't mean to get married today…but I don't want to wait for too long…so, what do you say? Will you consider marrying me in the future?" said Duo looking hopeful at Hilde.

"Yes, Duo, in the future, I will be more than happy to become Mrs Maxwell…" replied Hilde.

"Mmh…Mrs Maxwell, it does sound good, doesn't it?" said Duo hugging Hilde and kissing her again.

Duo spent the rest of the evening showing Hilde how pleasant their new condition as a couple was. That night, while Hilde was sleeping with her cute little head laying on his shoulder, Duo thought about Heero and Relena. It was terribly unfair that, the two people that had done the most to ensure the peace they enjoyed now, could not have the happiness they deserved.

"Heero buddy, I hope one day you'll feel for Relena, the same I feel for Hilde…" whispered Duo to nobody before falling asleep.

Not-So-Quick Author Note # 3: I know that this has little to do with the story but, I'm trying to fit other relationships in this HY/RP story. In any case, and answering to the people that have mentioned this in their reviews, I don't actually have the story all written just yet. I only have some sort of story line that I am following and sometimes changing along the way, regarding the length of the chapters, I was told by my partner that it's easier to read if the chapters aren't too long, also this helps me to update frequently... I also know that this is kind of dramatic but, do not fear, I am a romantic person so there will be a happy ending, is just that I don't know how long it will take so please be patient!

I am absolutely shocked with the amount of reviews I'm getting and how nice you people are! I just love you all so much! Thank you for the time you're taking reading this…it is the best sensation in the world to see that people appreciate your work. THANK YOU GUYS FOR EXISTING!


	26. Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Six

Sally had just finished visiting Relena. She was almost ready to back to Earth. It was all due to her titanic efforts to get better as soon as possible. Sally had never seen anyone as stubborn as this petite blond girl.

She met Lucrezia in her office. Milliardo was out with some Preventers and a crew of his own men. They were looking for Dr Pieter. Coming in the office, the American Chinese doctor asked:

"Any news?"

"Not really. Milliardo contacted me two hours ago. They have been looking for him everywhere. It's pretty distressing, it seems he's vanished…" replied Lucrezia half worried, half sad.

"Are you worried he may still be alive?" asked Sally.

"Well, Duo said he shot him twice. Everyone saw him falling from quite high up. The problem is that nobody saw if his body landed somewhere. Everyone was far too worried about Relena and, they were also being shot…I guess the situation was far too chaotic…" explained Lucrezia.

"I guess so…Well, I was coming to tell you that Relena is getting much better now. Physically, she's almost fully recovered. Psychologically, I don't know, Relena is far to reserved and, I think that even if she was suffering, she would not let us know about it…I honestly think we'll never really know how she's feeling now…" said Sally looking very concerned.

"I know all about it. It's unbelievable how similar Milliardo's and Relena's personalities are. Sometimes I have the feeling that neither of them are truly showing their real self…I guess this comes from being royals…they were probably brought up like that…" commented Lucrezia.

Sally was going to reply when the videocom buzzed. Lucrezia replied. Then she turned around to say:

"Sally, it's for you. Is a Doctor David Greene…"

"Ah, thanks…" replied Sally sitting on a chair in front of the videocom.

Lucrezia left her alone and went to Milliardo's office to pick up some files. When she came back, her friend was sporting a huge smile.

"What's going on?" asked Lucrezia curious to hear what had made Sally so happy.

"Well, Dr Greene has performed the same series of tests we did here and has come to the same conclusion…Heero did not kill those men consciously. He had no conception of wrong and right. David has told me that it will be a piece of cake to convince the jury that Heero is not guilty for he is in a sort of hypnotic state…he said there is so much evidence that we'll have to take our pick…He also said that, and now this is the best bit, with a few medicines and the appropriate treatment, Heero may recover his normal self…He said that it will take all of Heero's willpower but, I said that this was Heero, that no one had as much willpower as he does…" explained excitedly Sally.

"I cannot agree with this Sally, Relena has more willpower than all of us together…" said Lucrezia.

"I guess you're right…in any case, I think we can be optimistic about the trial…I think I'll go and tell Relena…she'll be happy to hear it…" said Sally leaving the room and heading to the medical centre.

A few days later, Relena was getting ready to go back to Earth. Lucrezia came in her room without knocking. She was smiling so much that Relena thought she could see the older woman's wisdom teeth.

"Guess what?" Lucrezia said looking like a little girl.

"I don't know…" replied Relena smiling softly while finishing to put her shoes on, it felt incredibly good to be properly dressed again after almost a month.

"Mr Wright has called and, it's official, Heero's charges have been all dropped, as Dr Greene predicted, he has been pronounced not guilty by the jury on the basis that he was not in a fit state of mind so, Heero could not understand that, what he was doing, was wrong. Dr Greene has convinced the jury that with the right psychological treatment, Heero will be able to re-insert himself in society…"

Relena had to hold herself to the bed. She was so happy she could have fainted…ever since she had been shot, she had not quite been the same…Before it she never fainted, now she did it all the time…In any case she was so happy she gladly accepted Lucrezia's hug. Relena started crying but, this time of sheer happiness. For the first time in ages, she felt that now everything could be fixed.


	27. Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Seven

The shuttle was ready, Relena could not wait to get to Earth but, before leaving, she had a really long conversation with Lucrezia and Milliardo. They had been thinking about postponing the wedding and Relena had told them not to even consider doing such thing.

"Milliardo, it took you forever to gather the all the courage you needed to propose. Do you think I will allow you to postpone the wedding now? Are you joking? Do you know how long poor Lucrezia has been waiting for you? No, dear brother, you are marrying this woman or my name is not Relena!" the vice foreign minister said resolutely giving no room whatsoever to any disagreement.

"Ok, ok…I just thought that, after all you've been through and all…" Milliardo started saying but interrupted himself seeing his sister shaking her head.

"Your wedding has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with you…I will be thrilled to see you two married and happy…I'm serious, I want you two to be happy, you deserve it so…" said Relena looking at the two of them. It was quite hilarious seeing the blond girl being so determinate and imposing herself on Milliardo and Lucrezia, even though her short, small frame was being towered by the two older people.

"Ok…I promise we will go ahead with the wedding…" surrendered Milliardo hoping that this would calm his sister down.

"Good boy…" replied the girl patting her brother's arm.

"Relena, if you're ready, we have to go…" intervened Sally.

"Sure, now, I hope to hear from you two soon…otherwise you'll have me sending you a priest up here to make sure you DO get married…" warned Relena while hugging her brother first and then Lucrezia before turning around and leave.

The couple watched her leave, then looked at each other and smiled. This girl was really the most obstinate person on Earth.

As soon as they touched down, Relena, regardless of how desperately she needed to rest, demanded to be taken to the hospital where Heero was. Sally tried to persuade her but, of course, she failed, so she ended up going to the hospital with the younger girl.

They got there just outside of the visiting times. Relena was about to start one of her speeches when Dr Greene, seeing Sally, approached the two girls and, speaking to the nurse, said:

"They have my authorisation to visit a patient. I take full responsibility…" .

Relena and Sally followed Dr Greene after having thanked him. Dr Greene took them to one of the sections in the psychiatric ward. Relena saw all sorts of sick people. There was a woman that, sitting on her bed, kept rocking back and forth singing some monotone tune with a very small voice. Then they saw someone eating his own hair and two male nurses trying to stop him. Relena started feeling very sick. She had never seen such collection of freaks…her heart started contracting painfully, especially because she knew that Heero was there too.

Anger started building up and, when they got to Heero's room to find him unconscious and tied down to his bed, Relena simply exploded:

"Dr Greene, I want, no, I demand that Heero is removed from this hospital AT ONCE…He does not need this, he needs to be in a place where he'll be surrounded by people that love him…".

"Relena!" exclaimed Sally, looking at Dr Greene apologetically.

"I agree with you…Miss Peacecraft. The only problem is that, as you know, Mr Yuy has nowhere else to go…" said Dr Greene.

"That's not true. He's got somewhere to go. I will take him this minute to my home. I'm sure it won't represent too many difficulties to organise his transfer there, besides I can offer him an entire wing of the palace. I also want to select a group of nurses that will take care of him around the clock. And, naturally, I want the best panel of psychiatric doctors for him. I want for Heero the best that money can buy…" said Relena back into full politician mood.

"Ok. I will grant this request to you Miss Relena. I will even recommend a list of doctors and nurses to you, if you wish me to do so…" replied the doctor looking like he was grateful to hear her words.

"Fine. Now, what do you need me to do?" asked Relena.

"Just follow me, we'll need you to sign a few documents and I will then give you a few names…" said Dr Greene starting to walk towards his office followed by the small blond girl. He quickly turned around and looked at Sally with a look that seemed to say 'this friend of yours is stubborn, isn't she?", Sally returned the look that seemed to reply 'you've no idea…".


	28. Chapter Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Eight

Relena woke up suddenly. It was happening again, Heero was having another nightmare. Getting up quickly, she grabbed her dressing gown and ran towards his room, located immediately next to hers. She knew that one of the nurses would be there in minutes but, as usual, she managed to get there before anyone else.

Opening the door, she ran to sit by his side. He was fast asleep but he was screaming. Relena, carefully, placed her hand on one of his shoulders and with her soft voice tried to calm him down.

"Ssh…Heero, it's me, wake up…" she said while shaking him slightly.

Heero opened his beautiful Prussian blue eyes and stared at her, confused.

"It's just one of your bad dreams…Heero, I'm here now, you're safe…" said Relena hugging him.

"I had to do it again…" Heero said and then added, "I killed them all…".

"I know, but it was a dream. You don't need to kill anyone, not anymore…I swore I would protect you, didn't I? Just like you promised three years ago, remember? We will protect each other…we are a team, rembember?" said Relena pulling him away to look straight into his eyes.

"Yes. We are a team…I'm safe now, this is home…" confirmed Heero.

"Yes, Heero, you are home…Now, you need to go back to sleep, tomorrow you have another session…the doctors are very happy with you and, I'm happy as well, you're doing lots of progress, did you know that?" asked Relena.

"I know, all of these emotions are so confusing sometimes…" replied Heero.

"Yes I know, but that is normal, it's called to be alive and be a human being…Now, you go back to sleep. If you need something, please let me know, ok?" asked Relena.

"Sure. Sorry for the trouble…" replied Heero.

"Don't worry about it. Good night Heero" said Relena tucking him in bed.

"Good night Relena" said Heero.

Turning off the lights, Relena closed Heero's bedroom's door and went back to hers.

It had been six months since Heero had been transferred to the Peacecraft's mansion. Relena's mum had been a little bit surprised about it but, since Relena was so determinate to carry on her decision to take care of Heero, said nothing. At the end of the day, this was Relena's house, she was grateful Relena had asked her to move in with her. She had felt very lonely since her husband, the former Vice Foreign Minister Darlian, had been killed. Relena now knew that this woman was not her real mother, but she did not care about it and she kept treating her like if Mrs Darlian was her mother. Their relationship was not a conventional one but, again, Relena was not a conventional girl.

Relena got in bed quite tired. It had been a long day. She had to attend that trade conference and then, there were two very stressful meetings and tones of paperwork to check and sign. Her life was almost back to normal, at least her political life. Everyone had almost forgot about Mr Valliant's incident. In these times, everyone tried to forget very quickly everything that could threaten peace. Her personal life was a completely different matter. To this day, only three people knew about her lost baby, she still had not told Heero and she thought she would never do it, now Heero was too frail emotionally speaking to cope with such news and, even if, no, when he would fully recover, it would be useless to cause him so much pain... Relena kept herself busy at all times during the day, but there was no night that she went to bed without thinking about her unborn baby. It was long ago that she had stopped crying about it. Now she just felt very sad about it. She hoped that with time, she would come to terms with it. Not forget, for she would never forget.

In any case, she still had Heero, she was forever grateful of this even if, maybe, Heero would never be able to return her feelings, still so, she was as happy as she had told him. His progresses were, as judged by the doctors, extraordinary. He was now able to make a normal conversation with everyone. Did not feel constantly threatened by everything and, recently, he had started to feel some emotions like sadness, happiness and, sometimes, frustration and anger. He had even started going out, though always accompanied by either Paygan or herself. It was only when he slept that he kept getting nightmares. Tomorrow's session was to see if the doctors could do something to stop them.

Just as Dr Greene had predicted when they were transferring Heero, it had been incredibly difficult, Heero was completely uncooperative and it took all of Relena's patience and willpower to get everyone to be optimistic and not to give up. Especially Heero, at the beginning he refused to follow the treatment and, very often he had become dangerous so, to Relena's immense displeasure, the doctors had been forced to tie him down on his bed.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day for Relena, she had to meet Lucrezia. They were going to do the final fitting of the older woman's wedding dress. Lucrezia and her brother were finally going to tie the knot in a week's time.


	29. Chapter Twenty Nine

Chapter Twenty Nine

Heero was in his room. He was just finishing to get in the tuxedo he had to wear for the wedding. It had been a very difficult six months. All of that therapy and those doctors. They kept checking him, testing him and asking him question after question. He now realised it was for his own good but it had been very heavy on him.

He thought of Relena. That girl had always been by his side. At the beginning he did not understand why she was doing all of that for him. He had even asked her once. Her reply was shocking. She said that, with time, he would understand. In any case, he was very grateful for everything he did for her.

Three days ago, during one of the sessions, one of the doctors had hypnotised him. They needed to so they would try to bring back his old self. They got shocked and, when Heero heard himself answering to their questions, so did he.

They asked him if he remembered anyone important from the past. Anyone that had meant to him more than anyone else. He replied very clearly that yes, the most important person in his life was Relena Peacecraft. They asked him why was she so important to him. His answer was absolutely unbelievable. He would not have believed it if he had not heard his own, registered voice saying it. He said:

"Because I love her".

Love? He had been trying, during these last three days, to find that emotion inside himself. It was very frustrating because he simply seemed unable to do so. Heero read about what love was in the Peacecraft's database. When he typed the word in the search engine, it gave a huge list, it said that only the first ten thousand items, from the millions found, were shown. Millions? Was love that important? Heero asked himself. He got confused, there was too much information. He thought it would be better to ask someone about it.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He asked whoever it was to come in. It was Relena. She was already all dressed up. Heero was really impressed. Relena was simply the most beautiful creature. She was wearing a pale blue dress that was hanging from her shoulders with two thin straps that had something glittery on them that made them sparkle. Her blond hair was left loose on the back but two locks from the sides were being held back with two hairclips containing the same glitter than the straps. She was also wearing diamond earrings and necklace.

Relena was also very impressed with Heero's tuxedo. He looked really good. Now that all the cuts and bruises had faded his face was as handsome as ever. She almost hoped that this was their wedding. She mentally brushed aside this stupid thought and said:

"Are you ready?".

"Yes…Let's go…" replied Heero walking towards her.

Relena took Heero where her brother and the other men were. Then, hoping that Heero would not get nervous or something, went to the room where Lucrezia was getting dressed. Sally and Dorothy were already there.

Lucrezia looked amazing. The dress was a complete success. It was made of white silk, with quite a deep décolletage but not so much as to make it indecent. Just underneath the breasts there was a thin silver ribbon that was made to match the present that Relena had for her.

Relena took a box she had hid under the bed.

"Well, every bride needs something new, something old, something blue and something borrowed, doesn't she? You've got the new dress, my adoptive mother's earrings are borrowed, and this is something old and blue…" said Relena giving the box to the bride.

Lucrezia opened the box. It was a fabulous silver tiara with diamonds and sapphires set on it. It looked horribly expensive.

"Relena…" started saying Lucrezia. Sally and Dorothy had no words, they had never seen something as rich as that.

"It belonged to my biological mother, the Queen of Sank…My adoptive one said that the Queen herself had given it to her for me, for whenever I got married…but, since I don't think that will ever happen, I thought that, since you are going to be my sister, I may as well give it to you instead…" explained Relena.

"Relena…I cannot accept this gift…I…it just would not be right…this…is too much…" said Lucrezia carefully getting the tiara back in the box and handing it back to the blond girl.

"But…" Relena said feeling a bit hurt…

"I don't want you to take it wrongly. I am so moved you even thought of giving it up to me but, I insist…don't rule marriage out of your life…Relena, you never know…" said Lucrezia holding the girl's hands with her own.

"I wish I was as sure as you are…" replied Relena with a whisper and then looking at Lucrezia added, "I have been trying to stop loving Heero like that. I have tried to consider him like if he was my brother or something like that...for my own good and, I know that, sooner or later, I will succeed…".

"Oh Relena…" was all that Lucrezia managed to say.


	30. Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

The wedding ceremony went without a glitch. Milliardo was standing proudly near the altar that had been build in the Peacecraft's mansion's garden. Flowers decorated everything, from the chairs to the altar itself. Standing next to him was Heero. Milliardo, lacking of any best friend or male relative that could play the part, had asked Heero to be his best man. Although Heero did not understand very well what it meant, had accepted asking Milliardo to just tell him everything he needed to do.

The bride came accompanied by Quatre. Relena, walking behind Lucrezia, caught the sight of Milliardo's face when he turned around and saw his bride. He seemed at first shocked, then it seemed that the ice from his eyes melted into water. He looked at her so lovingly that made Relena feel a bit jealous. Relena told herself off. This was their day and she would make every effort so nothing would ruin it. Placing herself next to the bride and taking the bouquet from her, waited till the ceremony began.

When the crucial moment arrived and Milliardo kissed his, now, wife, Heero was looking at Relena. He saw a couple of tears coming from her violet coloured eyes. He got worried, why was she crying? Was anything wrong? He looked around and saw that actually most of the women had tears in their eyes. He was really confused again and made a mental note to ask Relena about this.

After the ceremony, they moved to the huge marquee where the wedding lunch would be served and where the celebrations would be held.

After the four course meal, the wedding cake was served and the traditional toast round started.

The first to speak had to be Heero doing his job as a best man. Relena was very nervous that this may have been a bit too much for Heero and hoped for the best.

Heero stood up. Everyone was staring at him. He felt nervous. 'Hey, another feeling' he thought for himself, he was getting good at this feeling thing. He lifted his glass, that contained non alcoholic champagne, the same one that was being served to Quatre, who, being Islamic, could not drink alcohol and, started speaking:

"I'm probably the worst person on Earth to speak about feelings but, I have done some research and, from what I have seen, there is enough chemistry between these two to make sure that their relationship will last…Well, have a good life…".

Everyone was shocked. Relena the first one. Heero's speech was so good that it almost looked like it had been the old Heero speaking.

"Well, thank you Heero…" said Milliardo getting up and toasting with Heero. Then everyone did the same and said:

"To Lucrezia and Milliardo: Have a good life!".

Then the other guys made their speeches. Duo's as usual, was extremely funny and made everyone laugh out loud. Heero even smiled. Then it was Relena's turn.

"Well, after having heard everyone's speeches, I feel like I have very little left to say, so I will just wish you the very best. You give us all an example of loyalty, love and care for each other that everyone should follow. Ah, and I want to say: I want you two to make me an aunt soon, I will love to spoil your children! To you two, my brother and, my sister…".

After this speech, everyone toasted again and then, after Milliardo and Lucrezia had officially opened the dance, everyone went to the dance floor. Something amazing happened then. Sally, as usual was teasing Wufei who, getting tired of being picked on, got up and with a mock reverence, asked Sally to dance.

Sally shocked, agreed. They started dancing and Sally had to admit that the Chinese pilot was rather good at it.

"When did you learn to dance Wufei?" asked the American Chinese doctor looking up, since Wufei had actually grown taller than her in these last few years.

"Well, one has to do everything to impress the woman he loves…" simply replied Wufei.

"What? Wufei…" said Sally getting shocked for the second time in two minutes.

Wufei, instead of replying, did the unthinkable. Taking Sally's face with one hand, bent down to kiss her. Wufei felt immensely relieved when Sally, instead of slapping him like he very much expected, started kissing him back.

By the time he stopped kissing her, everyone in the room was staring at them.

"I hope that now you will give me a break and will stop teasing me…" said Wufei behaving so naturally that almost made Sally laugh.


	31. Chapter Thirty One

Chapter Thirty One

Lucrezia and Milliardo were getting ready to leave. Lucrezia, before leaving, took Relena aside to speak to her.

"Thank you so much for helping organise this. I will be forever grateful of all the support you've given to us, especially to me…I am the happiest woman on Earth and I really wish you that you'll soon be as happy as I am. If anyone deserves it, that is you" said Lucrezia.

"I thank you for your kind words but I should be grateful to you. I know now that my brother is in the best hands and that you will do your best to keep him happy…" replied Relena.

"About that tiara…I told your brother and he said that he's sure that sooner or later it will be you who will use it…he also said that I've done a good job not accepting it, that tiara was specially modified by your mother, you see, she changed the emeralds it originally had with the sapphires so they would match your eyes…" explained Lucrezia.

Relena was speechless. Her mum had gone through so much trouble even though she must have been just a newborn baby when all of this had happened.

The two women hugged each other before Lucrezia had to leave. Before that she turned around and giving her back to the group of women, threw her bouquet. It was almost like God himself wanted it to be like that because it just fell in Hilde's hands. The German girl was shocked. Then she took it with one hand and lifting it shouted at Duo:

"I won!".

Duo shouted back:

"We're next then!".

Then Hilde realising what he had said, blushed deeply and looked around to find everyone smiling at her. 'Oh my gosh!' Hilde thought, 'What have I done!'.

Shortly after the newlyweds had left, Sally and Wufei made their excuses and left quickly. Everyone exchanged eloquent looks. They were followed by Lady Une and the group of preventers that had come to the wedding to do the surveillance.

Quatre, Trowa and Dorothy, after staying for a quick coffee, left too. They were going to spend the night in Dorothy's house not far away from Relena's.

Duo and Hilde, not being able to go back to L2 that same night, they accepted Relena's hospitality and stayed in the mansion.

Once they were left alone, Hilde asked Duo very seriously:

"Did you mean what you said earlier?".

"Babe, sure I did. You know that I want us to get married…" replied Duo.

"I know, is just that you have not mentioned it for a while…" said Hilde.

"I know, is just that I wanted to give you a break…so you would have time to think about it…" said Duo.

"Ah…I see…" said the German girl.

"Ok…let's go to bed…" said Duo thinking that the conversation was over.

"Hey, don't you want to hear my answer?" asked suddenly Hilde.

"What? I…" exclaimed Duo.

"My answer is yes. Duo, let's get married…" said Hilde kissing Duo.

"What?" repeated Duo pulling away.

"I said, let's get married…I'm ready now…" explained Hilde.

Duo just shouted his happiness. Lifted Hilde in his arms and made her spin with him in the air.


	32. Chapter Thirty Two

Chapter Thirty Two

The house was all quiet. Everyone had gone to sleep. Even Relena had managed to fall asleep relatively easily. It had been a tiring day but she was happy.

In the room next to her, Heero was the only one in the house that was not sleeping. He felt very restless. He had too many unanswered questions in his head to fall sleep.

He decided to get up and head towards Relena's bedroom. He went in without knocking. The lights were off but through the window came enough light to see Relena laying on her bed.

She was sleeping.

Heero went to her side and looked at her her. It was the first time since he had moved to her house that he saw her sleeping. He looked at her for quite a while. She looked like an angel. A sleeping angel. He decided to wake her up and started shaking her softly.

She woke up with a jolt. Looking up saw Heero.

"Heero? What's wrong?" said sleepily.

"I need some answers…" Heero said sitting by her side.

"Ah…what is it?" asked Relena.

"Ok…first of all, why were you all crying during the wedding?" asked Heero.

"Oh, well…you know, people, mainly women, cry when they get emotional…is just an reflex that comes instinctively…" explained Relena now fully awake sitting on her bed next to where Heero was sitting.

"Ok. But, does that mean you're sad?" asked Heero.

"No…it's just a reflex. When a person cries, it may be for many different reasons…" replied Relena.

"Ah. Ok. I also wanted to tell you this, three days ago, the doctors did a test on me and hypnotised me. They were asking me questions about my past and the asked me if there was anyone special in my life and if so, twhy this person was so special…" explained Heero.

"And…what did you say?" asked Relena.

"I heard my registered voice saying that the most important person for me was you…" replied Heero.

"And….?" managed to say Relena. She started feeling a strange knot blocking her throat. She was incredibly close to burst in tears. Heero had admitted that the most important person in his life, well at least in the past, had been her. When Heero replied to Relena's last question, she just could not hold herself any longer.

"I said that you were the most important person for me because I loved you…".

Relena started crying so much she almost had convulsions. This was too much for her to handle. Heero had loved her. He did love her before all this mayhem happened. If only they had not got kidnapped, everything would have been alright. They would have spoken and they would have confessed to each other their feelings. The most upsetting thing was that, if all of this had not happened, it would probably been them the ones going off on honeymoon and their baby would be almost ready to come to this world…They would have been a family. Now…

Heero, not knowing what to do, hugged her like he had seen other people hugging each other. They stayed like that till Relena got a bit calmer. Heero remembered then the last question he had.

"Relena. I know I am a mess now. I realise how difficult it has been for you in this last few months. I know that I still have a long way to go but, I really need to know if this feeling I used to feel for you is still there. Because I feel that the only person I really want to be with is still you. Will you please stay with me and help me find the answers I need? I know that what I'm asking is very selfish, I am not even guaranteeing that I will succeed but it's the only thing I have to offer you…"

Relena looked up to meet Heero's eyes. She was in so much pain while he was looking at her hopeful. They had been through so much that, it was a miracle that they could even consider the possibility that they may still have the chance of being together. Finally, Relena found her voice to reply:

"Heero, I don't understand why you are even asking such thing. You really should know better than this…Of course I will stay with you and I will help you…even if it takes forever, I will still be with you, because Heero, without you, I'm lost…you're all my life…" then she burst in tears once more.

Heero smiled again, it was the second time that day that he smiled. He was about to break his personal record. Relena loved him so much when he smiled…She wanted to do all she could so he would only have reasons to smile.

They hugged each other and, laying down, fell asleep in each other's arms.

Ok guys, this was the last chapter, (Sob, sob…authoress cries in distress…) in any case, do not fear. I have prepared some kind of epilogue/sequel which I think I will publish very shortly, that is if anyone is interested in reading it... In any case, thank you so much for reading up to here and for the lovely reviews you've been kind enough to leave... YOU'RE GREAT!!


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